Title: The 7 Deadliest Diseases For Blacks | BlackDoctor.org - Where Wellness & Culture Connect
Headings: The 7 Deadliest Diseases For Blacks
The 7 Deadliest Diseases For Blacks
Why These Disparities?
Black Americans & Lung Disease
Blacks & Heart Disease
Blacks & Diabetes
Blacks & Sickle Cell Anemia
How Are These Disparities Being Dealt With For The Future?
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Content: “The theory is that maybe it is access to health care, or maybe a cultural fatalism — thinking, ‘It is God’s will,’ or, ‘My family had it so I have it’ — not a sense of something I can have an impact on so it won’t hurt me,” says Nelson. There is, indeed, evidence that Blacks may have a genetic susceptibility to diabetes. Even so, Nelson says, the real problem is empowering patients to keep their diabetes under control, since patients often have the sense that they are not as much in charge of managing their diabetes as their doctor. It’s easy to say people with diabetes should learn how to control their disease. But the tools for this kind of self-empowerment often aren’t available in Black neighborhoods, says Elizabeth D. Carlson, DSN, RN, MPH. Carlson, a postdoctoral fellow in the division of cancer prevention and education at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, studies the social determinants of health. “I go to this Black neighborhood 20 minutes from my house in a white neighborhood, and the health education they get in school is much worse than the health education my kids get,” says Carlson. “ It is not just formal education, but everyday things. It’s being afraid to go out and exercise because you live in a high-crime neighborhood. It’s not having transportation to your health care provider.