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Breast Cancer

Latinos Twice as Likely to be Food Insecure

Latinos and blacks in California more likely to die of H1N1 than whites

Cancers set to ‘explode’ in Latino/a populations, expert says

Smog before birth may hurt IQ

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Breast Cancer

 (breastcancer.org) Breast cancer symptoms vary widely — from lumps to swelling to skin changes — and many breast cancers have no obvious symptoms at all. Symptoms that are similar to those of breast cancer may be the result of non-cancerous conditions like infection or a cyst.

Breast self-exam should be part of your monthly health care routine, and you should visit your doctor if you experience breast changes. If you’re over 40 or at a high risk for the disease, you should also have an annual mammogram and physical exam by a doctor. The earlier breast cancer is found and diagnosed, the better your chances of beating it.

The actual process of diagnosis can take weeks and involve many different kinds of tests. Waiting for results can feel like a lifetime. The uncertainty stinks. But once you understand your own unique “big picture,” you can make better decisions. You and your doctors can formulate a treatment plan tailored just for you.

In the following pages of the Symptoms and Diagnosis section, you can learn about:

Understanding Breast Cancer
How breast cancer happens, how it progresses, the stages, and a look at risk factors.

Screening and Testing
The tests used for screening, diagnosis, and monitoring, including mammograms, ultrasound, MRI, CAT scans, PET scans, and more.

Types of Breast Cancer
The different types of breast cancer, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), inflammatory breast cancer, male breast cancer, recurrent breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer, and more.

Your Diagnosis
The characteristics of the cancer that might affect your treatment plan, including size, stage, lymph node status, hormone receptor status, and more.

Your Pathology Report
A detailed, step-by-step explanation of what your pathology report says and how this might affect your treatment options.

 

 To read the complete article click here

Source: www.breastcancer.org

Latinos Twice as Likely to be Food Insecure

This document is taken from the President and CEO of NCLR, Janet Murguia’s presentation to the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry on The Effect of Food Insecurity in the Latino Community.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Hispanic household food insecurity rate (17.9%) is twice as high as the rate for non-Hispanic White households (8.2%), the most food secure.6

In addition, Latino households with children have even higher rates of food insecurity; 21.6% of these households experience food insecurity compared to 11.8% of similar White households. Because of the dearth of resources in many Latino households, their ability to make food purchases is restricted.  While the typical non-Hispanic White U.S. household spends $45 per person each week for food, Hispanic households spend 25% less, just $33 weekly per person.7

A survey in the Journal of Nutrition found that some of the consequences of food insecurity include hunger pangs, fatigue, lack of concentration at school, low work capacity, stress, disrupted household dynamics, and distorted means of food acquisition and management. 9

Respondents to the survey reported depression, increased need for health care, and decreased participation in social activities. 10 Families will go to great lengths to keep their children from going hungry, which is why it is so alarming that many Latino children do not have adequate resources for a nutritious diet. Food insecure children are twice as likely to be in fair or poor health.11

Further, a survey of parents of low-income, young Latino children who are food insecure found that they are two times more likely to note developmental concerns, including risks of developmental delays or disabilities, than households with children who have adequate resources for food.12 Even small cognitive changes can have lasting impacts on a child s education. Even when a child experiences even mild levels of food insecurity, data suggest that school performance and social skills are comprised.13

The coping mechanisms associated within adequate food resources such as overeating when food is available, compromising the quality of food in order to consume higher quantities, and even skipping meals, which causes metabolic shifts can result in a higher propensity for weight gain. While food insecurity persists in the Latino community, there is also a rising trend of obesity. One recent study found that among Latino preschoolers children in the critical stages of growth nearly one-quarter (24.4%) were identified as obese.15

Food insecurity also has a broader impact on society. The increased risk for and severity of sickness and disease that results from food insecurity can create a demand for more physician time, extensive levels of treatment, and greater rates of hospitalization all of which require more money and resources. The health care costs associated with increased illness due to food insecurity not only fall on individuals who suffer from these effects, but ultimately add strain to the entire health care system.

There is also mounting evidence that the overweight and obesity trends in the United States are due, in part, to high levels of food insecurity.14

The educational benefits of participating in government assistance programs include contributing to families achieving a higher level of nutrition. Program participants are more likely than low income nonparticipants to lack confidence about their knowledge of good dietary practices and the quality of their diet. However, they benefit from nutrition education, which promotes consumption of healthier foods, a balanced diet, and physical activity. The results can be seen in the healthier choices they make in grocery stores.17 Further, the education of adult participants is likely to have lasting impact on the younger family members, encouraging children to make healthy choices in and outside of the household. Although it is difficult to establish a direct causal relationship between participation and health outcomes because of the added effects of the program on reducing poverty and improving socioeconomic status, data show that participants are able to make more deliberate choices that maximize the nutrition content of their food. In fact, despite rising obesity rates throughout the country for the population overall, women who
participated in the Food Stamp Program from 1999 to 2002 were less likely to be overweight and
were able to keep their weight relatively steady compared to nonparticipants.18

Document sampled from the House Committee on Agriculture website.

For more information on Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs visit: www.fns.usda.gov

Latinos and blacks in California more likely to die of H1N1 than whites

According to Los Angeles Times, California Latinos have been nearly twice as likely as whites to die of H1N1 flu since the pandemic began last spring, according to statewide figures released this morning by the California Department of Public Health.

Over the same months, blacks in the state have been 50% more likely to die of H1N1 flu than whites, according to the report.

“Not everybody has been impacted equally” by H1N1, said state epidemiologist Dr. Gilberto Chavez during a briefing this morning. Chavez said statistics have shown “very important racial disparities” in H1N1 mortality and hospitalization rates.

Chavez said blacks were three times as likely as whites to be hospitalized with H1N1 flu, and Latinos twice as likely. He said Native Americans, who make up most of the “other” category in state H1N1 data, are also more likely to be hospitalized and die of H1N1 flu than whites.

There are several reasons for the higher mortality and hospitalization rates among those minorities, Chavez said. Blacks and Latinos have high rates of chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and obesity, that studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate put them at greater risk of catching the flu, Chavez said. They also tend to have less access to healthcare and wait longer to seek help, he said, which reduces the chances for successful treatment with antiviral medication.

“For cultural reasons, they may be waiting too long to seek care,” Chavez said. “This gives us an idea of who we need to target for outreach and immunizations.”

Cancers set to ‘explode’ in Latino/a populations, expert says

The Latino/a population in the United States is expected to triple by 2050, according to projections from the U.S. Census Bureau. And along with that growth, says University of Illinois professor Lydia Buki, will come a rise in the number of individuals from that population who are diagnosed with cancer.

In particular, based on current statistics, Buki expects that diagnoses of breast and cervical cancers among Latinas will increase significantly.

“It’s just going to explode,” she said. “It’s really a train wreck waiting to happen, and we’re not doing enough to anticipate women’s needs. Even right now, we are not doing a good job of providing services for these women.”

To better serve the physical and mental health needs of this population, with respect to cancer prevention, detection and treatment, Buki said, improvements must be made in two areas: knowledge and access.

“It’s women knowing the importance (of cancer screening), and at the same time being able to access information and screening services,” she said. “Also, we need to provide information and access to support services to women already diagnosed.”

A licensed psychologist and professor of community health, Buki is a co-author with U. of I. doctoral student Melissa Selem of “Cancer Screening and Survivorship in Latino Populations: A Primer for Psychologists,” a chapter in the “U.S. Handbook of Latina/o Psychology” (recently published by Sage).

“These include low levels of health insurance, limited proficiency with the English language, low levels of formal education, low income, cultural factors and institutional racism.”

Breast cancer ranks No. 1 among all cancers afflicting U.S. Latinas, and the five-year survivorship rate for Latinas is lower than that for non-Latina whites. Incidence rates of cervical cancer are up to three times higher than those for non-Latina whites.

“Evidence suggests that Latinos develop greater risk for this type of cancer across generations, given the changes in diet that take place across generations in the United States,” according to Buki and Selem. “As Latinos spend more time in the United Sates, their eating habits become more like those of non-Latino whites, with diets higher in fat and lower in fiber, fruits and vegetables.” And they note, Latinos are more likely than non-Latino whites to present with larger tumors or at more advanced stages of the disease.

Buki noted that the use of promotoras de salud – or peer role models – can be effective in “helping women navigate the health-care system to obtain the exams.”

“Moreover, by discussing cancer, a topic that has been taboo in traditional Latino culture, promotoras are helping create a dialogue in the community around cultural issues such as cancer stigma, fatalism and fear,” she noted. “These discussions, in turn, have the potential to break down barriers to screening.”

In addition to cultural barriers, those posed by language, low education and incomes also must be addressed by providing additional, better and more innovative forms of access to social services and psycho-social programming, Buki said.

“We’re headed down a road where we’re going to lose a lot of human potential in this country if we don’t start addressing the needs of this population.”

To read more click here. 

Source: University of Illinois News Bureau

Smog before birth may hurt IQ

Researchers for the first time have linked air pollution exposure before birth with lower IQ scores in childhood, bolstering evidence that smog may harm the developing brain.

The results are in a study of 249 children of New York City women who wore backpack air monitors for 48 hours during the last few months of pregnancy. They lived in mostly low-income neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. They had varying levels of exposure to typical kinds of urban air pollution, mostly from car, bus and truck exhaust.

At age 5, before starting school, the children were given IQ tests. Those exposed to the most pollution before birth scored on average four to five points lower than children with less exposure.

That’s a big enough difference that it could affect children’s performance in school, said Frederica Perera, the study’s lead author and director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health.

It suggests that you don’t have to live right next door to a belching factory to face pollution health risks, and that there may be more dangers from typical urban air pollution than previously thought, he said.

“We are learning more and more about low-dose exposure and how things we take for granted may not be a free ride,” he said.

While future research is needed to confirm the new results, the findings suggest exposure to air pollution before birth could have the same harmful effects on the developing brain as exposure to lead, said Patrick Breysse, an environmental health specialist at Johns Hopkins’ school of public health.

And along with other environmental harms and disadvantages low-income children are exposed to, it could help explain why they often do worse academically than children from wealthier families, Breysse said.

to read full article click here.

“It’s a profound observation,” he said. “This paper is going to open a lot of eyes.”

The study was released in the August edition of Pediatrics.

Author: Lindsay Tanner
Source: Associated Press