Health and Wellness 31

Serena Williams’ Message to Medical Professionals: LISTEN TO BLACK WOMEN

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Each year in the United States, about 700 women die during pregnancy or the year after.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another 50,000 women each year have unexpected labor and delivery outcomes with serious shortor long-term health consequences.

“Every pregnancy-related death is tragic, especially because two in three of them are preventable,” the CDC said as the nation observes Black Maternal Health Week through April 17.

Tennis superstar Serena Williams penned an essay for Elle Magazine’s April issue, in which she shared her personal experience.

She said she was almost one of them.

“I’ve suffered every injury imaginable, and I know my body,” Williams writes in the deeply personal essay, later adding: “Giving birth to my baby, it turned out, was a test for how loud and how often I would have to call out before I was finally heard.”

As Williams recounts, she had a “wonderful pregnancy” with her first child,

Alexis Olympia, and even her epidural-free delivery was going well—at first.

“By the next morning, the contractions were coming harder and faster. With each one, my baby’s heart rate plummeted. I was scared,” the 23-time Grand Slam winner wrote.

“Every time the baby’s heart rate dropped, the nurses would come in and tell me to turn onto my side. The baby’s heart rate would go back up, and everything seemed fine. Then, I’d have another contraction, and baby’s heart rate would drop again, but I’d turn over, and the rate would go back up, and so on and so forth.”

The CDC noted significant disparities in the birthing experience of Black women

in its most recent report.

The agency noted that Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women.

The agency said multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias.

The CDC added that social determinants of health prevent many people from racial and ethnic minority groups from having fair economic, physical, and emotional health opportunities.

After an emergency C-section, Williams gave birth to her daughter, Alexis.

Afterward, she said she had to fight for her life.

Already classified as a high risk for blood clots, Williams inquired whether she should receive heparin, a blood thinner.

“The response was, ‘Well, we don’t really know if that’s what you need to be on right now,’” Williams wrote.

“No one was really listening to what I was saying.”

Despite excruciating pain, Williams continued to speak out to her health care providers.

At one point, she felt paralyzed.

“I couldn’t move at all,” she recounted. Aching and coughing to the point where her C-section stitches burst, Williams complained that she couldn’t breathe.

Four surgeries later, doctors discovered a blood clot in one of her arteries, a hematoma in her abdomen, and other clots.

She said the nurse she had previously spoken with told her that the medicine was making her crazy. Had she gone along with the nurse’s assertions, Williams could have died.

Source: National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)

“Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life or death for me,” Williams asserted. “I know those statistics would be different if the medical establishment listened to every Black woman’s experience.”

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Steps To Help Protect Your

2) Don't dismiss a lack of symptoms

Since glaucoma often develops without symptoms and you can lose vision without noticing it, Miller-Ellis stresses that early action is vital for African Americans to help prevent glaucoma and other eye diseases.

When improving your health and wellness, it's essential to take care of your eyes too. For African Americans, this is especially important because of increased risk factors for eye disease and vision loss.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, glaucoma - a disease that damages the optic nerve and causes vision loss - is three times more likely to occur in African Americans. The risks of glaucoma are magnified further when you consider that the disease strikes, on average, 10 years earlier and progresses faster among African Americans, according to the Glaucoma Research Foundation.

The good news is that with early detection and treatments, including a wide range of eye drop medications, laser treatments, and several types of incisional surgery, the majority of patients with glaucoma maintain their vision. By becoming aware of your risk factors and taking preventive steps, you can help protect your eyes.

1) Finding answers in your genes

While the risk factors for eye disease continue to be studied, the ophthalmology community believes genetics can play a role.

"Aside from the access to care challenges that confront members of minority populations, African Americans have a range of genetic predispositions that make them more susceptible to eye diseases such as glaucoma," says Dr. Eydie MillerEllis, professor of clinical ophthalmology and director of the Glaucoma Service at the Scheie Eye Institute, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "This includes an increased risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and other serious medical conditions that can also contribute to poor eye health."

3) Schedule an eye exam

Understanding that you are at greater risk for eye disease and vision loss is the starting point toward protecting your eyesight. Begin a routine of yearly dilated eye exams with an ophthalmologist so that vision problems can be detected early. The Glaucoma Research Foundation recommends African Americans get a comprehensive exam to check for glaucoma starting at age 35.

4) No vision plan? No worries

Don't let the lack of a vision plan hold

you back from scheduling a screening for glaucoma. Medical eye exams and treatments for eye diseases, including glaucoma, are typically covered by regular health insurance. Check with your healthcare provider for specifics on your level of coverage. In addition, EyeCare America offers medical eye exams with volunteer ophthalmologists across the U.S., often for free.

5) Know your family history

Some eye diseases, such as glaucoma, can be hereditary. And for African Americans, the risk of glaucoma is 20% higher if it's already in your family.

"To prioritize healthy vision, it's important to have a complete understanding of your family's history of eye disease," says Dr. Mildred M.G. Olivier, founding regional dean at the School of Medicine, Ponce Health Sciences University, St. Louis campus. "That's why I encourage African American families to not only discuss their individual history of eye disease but also ensure that everyone in the family goes for an annual eye exam."

6) Empower yourself

Olivier also encourages people to be their own advocates in breaking down the health inequity barriers for minorities that may stand in the way of better eye health.

"It's important to ask your primary care physician to refer you to an ophthalmologist for an annual medical eye exam," says Olivier. "When you are at the eye doctor's office, make sure you are getting all the information you need and understand all of your options concerning your eyesight and any problems that arise."

Olivier and Miller-Ellis are working to improve access to eye care among minority populations as leaders of the Rabb-Venable Excellence in Ophthalmology Program, which supports minority medical students, residents, and fellows in ophthalmology. The Rabb-Venable program is part of the National Medical Association - Ophthalmology Section and supported by the

National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute.

The Glaucoma Research Foundation offers resources for African Americans to help build a plan for better eye health, including the guide "Understanding and Living with Glaucoma." This free booklet, supported by Aerie Pharmaceuticals, is available at www.glaucoma.org/ booklet.

Source: BPT

"The increased risk of early-onset glaucoma makes it critical for African Americans to take steps to protect their eye health at a young age," says Miller-Ellis. "Many people are lulled into a sense of complacency when it comes to their vision because they believe they see fine. But a lot of asymptomatic disorders like glaucoma can be damaging your eyesight without you realizing it."

Help You Your Vision

By By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. President and CEO, NNPA

s the United States continues to grapple with its legacy of systemic racism, debates on issues such as police brutality and racial profiling, the economic gulf between Blacks and Whites, and the dearth of access to affordable educational opportunities, there is one area that has received far less attention: The gap in positive health outcomes that African Americans –and particularly Black men – face.

While the COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on these fissures, its beam barely touched the edges of the problem. Yet according to government data, Black Americans are generally at higher risk for heart diseases, stroke, cancer, asthma, influenza and pneumonia, diabetes, and HIV/ AIDS than their white counterparts. Black people also have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial/ethnic group in the United States for most cancers. These are abhorrent figures any way you look at them, but especially when considering that many of these deadly diseases – at least when detected early – are treatable and survivable. Prostate cancer, for example, has a five-year survival rate for men diagnosed with it of greater than 99 percent if the cancer is detected during the early stage.

Yet, Black men have a 70 percent higher rate of developing prostate cancer than white men, and research from the American Cancer Society found that Black men are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than their White counterparts.

One of the key reasons for these staggering disparities is the fact that Black men are overall less aware of the threat this form of cancer poses to them and have fewer resources available to them to receive testing and monitoring for the disease. Thankfully there are members of the Black community like billionaire investor Robert F. Smith, The Today Show Co-host Al Roker, and activist comedians such as Chris Tucker and Steve Harvey who are raising their voices – and

contributing their dollars – to combat this affliction.

OP-ED: Prostate Cancer Rising in Black America D

Robert Smith, for example, recently donated $4 million of his own money to New York City’s Mount Sinai Medical Center to create the Robert F. Smith Mobile Prostate Cancer Screening Unit. This mobile homesized bus will tour New York City neighborhoods where men are at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer and offer screenings and educational materials about the disease. This proactive approach that brings diagnosis tools directly to the communities most at risk is the type of action that our nation needs when it comes to battling a disease that more than 13 percent of African American men are expected to develop in their lifetime. But Smith can’t be the only one doing this and New York City cannot be the only place where this type of outreach is occurring.

Whether it is other philanthropists, local or regional health centers, or state and federal officials, there is a desperate need for creative solutions to getting more people screened and saving more lives. Smith’s initiative is an innovative approach, but there are other ways to spread awareness and boost screenings in the Black community.

Whether it be through an advertising and outreach campaign to pop-up health centers and tents, the COVID-19 vaccine push in the Black and other minority communities can serve as a good example of how to quickly and efficiently get more Black men screened for the disease.

For too long, prostate cancer among Black men – and the disparity in health outcomes within the community overall – has remained relatively low profiled, but now we have a way to resolve this issue. The pioneering Black journalist and one of the effective voices and leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Ida B. Wells said it best, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth on them.” It is long overdue to turn on a brighter national light on prostate cancer and Black America.

Source: National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)

The Role of Pharmacists Is Changing, Here’s What To Know

By d-mars.com News Provider

New research from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health finds patients and physicians share widespread trust in pharmacists. This is welcome news as pharmacists in the United States are poised to take on additional responsibilities to help fill the growing care gap expected from health care provider shortages in the next decade.

The Prescription of Trust report is the result of the largest and most comprehensive research study on the future role of pharmacists that incorporates the voice of patients, prescribers, and pharmacists. The study was commissioned by Express Scripts Pharmacy, one of the nation’s largest and most experienced home delivery pharmacies, to understand the expanding role of pharmacists.

“The COVID pandemic has spotlighted pharmacists’ accessibility and the trust people have in them as health care professionals,” said Susan Peppers, RPh, chief pharmacist of Express Scripts Pharmacy, an Evernorth company.

Patients are ready… so are prescribers.

Nearly 80% of patients see pharmacists as an integral part of their health care team. Doctors and other healthcare providers are already turning to pharmacists more often for support -- 72% consider pharmacists to be part of their healthcare team, working together to provide the best care for patients.

CDC Launches New Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

allowing them to discuss disease and medication management directly with a patient as well as in conjunction with their health care provider team,” explained Peppers.

• Counseling patients: Expect pharmacists to spend more time proactively counseling patients on medications and overall wellness. Telepharmacy is particularly conducive for this level of care as patients are often more comfortable asking questions about their medications from the privacy of home, and without the distractions at a pharmacy counter. Telepharmacists can take time to answer your medication questions. In fact, according to the study, of pharmacists who use telepharmacy, more than a third say it gives them more time to interact with patients.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced the launch of the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA).

According to a news release, the CFA seeks to enhance the nation’s ability to use data, models, and analytics to enable timely, effective decision-making in response to public health threats for CDC and its public health partners.

CFA’s goals are to improve outbreak response using infectious disease modeling and analytics and to provide support to leaders at the federal, state, and local levels,” officials stated in the release.

They noted that CFA will also develop a program to provide insights about infectious disease events to the public to inform individual decision-making – the equivalent of the National Weather Service for infectious diseases.

“I am excited we have launched CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics,” said CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky.

“This new center is an example of how we are modernizing the ways we prepare for and respond to public health threats. I am proud of the work that has come out of this group thus far and eager to see continued innovation in the use of data, modeling, and analytics to improve outbreak responses.”

Walensky added that CFA’s work will be focused on three main pillars: to predict, inform, and innovate.

• Managing chronic diseases: Estimates predict that by 2025, 164 million Americans will have a chronic disease. As the need to support patients with chronic disease grows, you can expect pharmacists to step up to the plate by serving as specialists who advise patients, or by interacting with a larger health team to manage complex care. At the forefront of this trend are pharmacists in ambulatory clinics, hospitals, and home delivery pharmacies. Indeed, Express Scripts Pharmacy is already supporting patients with such conditions as diabetes, HIV, and cardiovascular conditions through its Therapeutic Resource Centers. In these centers, pharmacists are trained to focus on the treatment and management of specific conditions.

The Prescription of Trust: Key Takeaways.

• Taking on a bigger role: In some states, pharmacists can already prescribe certain types of medication. As physician and nurse practitioner shortages escalate, there is a growing movement for pharmacists to receive more training in diagnosing minor and acute conditions and prescribing medication to treat them.

“Beyond dispensing prescription medications and providing medication advice, many of our pharmacists are already specially trained in specific diseases,

For health care news, along with helpful tips from pharmacists on how to stay safe and healthy, visit Express Scripts Pharmacy at express-scripts.com/pharmacy/blog.

“On the medication front, your pharmacist is a member of your care team who can see you from a 360-degree perspective,” says Peppers. “For this reason, pharmacists have always been uniquely positioned to be a frontline member of your overall health care.”

Source: StatePoint

According to the release, CFA has begun to build a world-class outbreak analytics team with experts across several disciplines to develop faster, richer evidence to predict trends and guide decision-making during emergencies.

Further, to better inform partners, CFA is hiring expert communicators to regularly share insights with federal, state, and local partners and the public.

CFA will also continue to advance the state of the science of outbreak data, models, and analytics to improve the nation’s ability to respond to health emergencies.

“The capabilities and team we are building at the new Center will improve decision-making in a health crisis,” said Dr. Dylan George, Director for Operations.

“I am proud of the CFA team and excited for the future. Better data and analytics will give us better responses to protect all Americans.”

Planning for CFA began in August 2021, with the initial funding of $200 million from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Thus far, the CDC has awarded $26 million in funding to academic institutions and federal partners to advance modeling and forecasting methodology, with an emphasis on workforce development and health equity.

In December 2021, CFA worked with academic partners to assemble models anticipating the Omicron wave and generated early estimates of Omicron severity, giving leaders an opportunity to bolster the response.

For more information on CFA, visit www.cdc.gov/CFA.

Source: National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)

“As the shortage of doctors and nurses persists, and as complex new therapies and digital health care technology solutions are developed, the role of the pharmacist will continue to evolve,” said John McHugh, MBA, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

How To Encourage Someone To Seek Therapy

Tami V. Allen, MS, LPC Contributing Writer

Watching someone struggle with their mental health and not knowing how to help is one of the most challenging experiences. It is natural to want to encourage them to seek professional help and while some are willing to seek therapy, others remain resistant to the suggestion. If you want to encourage someone to seek therapy here is how to approach the subject with sensitivity, concern, and respect for their feelings.

Timing is everything

Choosing an opportune time when the person may be most receptive to talk about it is the key which sometimes means during the time of crisis. Outside of the crisis is an opportunity to educate them about the process, help them find a therapist, and even share your personal experience on help therapy may have helped you.

Be careful not to judge

Let the person know you want to help based on your observation of their behaviors while being careful not to convey judgment. Ask questions and be patient while listening to the responses being given. Let them know how therapy could potentially benefit them by addressing their concerns and communicate your desire to see them mentally and emotionally well.

Address fears and misconceptions

Some of the fears and concerns people express for not seeking therapy are cost, lack of insurance, bad experiences in the past, timing, and lack of understanding of the value of talking things out with a “stranger.” These are all reasonable concerns to be addressed. Validate concerns, provide personal referrals, explain how insurance works or refer them to free community services and emphasize the value of talking to a professional versus family/friends. Many therapists offer hybrid services (office or virtual) for privacy and convenience.

For couples...

Usually, one person leads the

conversation about seeking therapy. While some partners are agreeable, others are resistant. The partner suggesting therapy must approach the subject from the perspective of their experience of the problem(s) and how therapy can benefit the relationship. Side note- most couples describe poor communication as the basis of the problem.

Couples therapy teaches how to use “I” statements, remove the emotion, remain focused on the topic while avoiding defensiveness and personal attacks, and how to listen with patience and understanding of the other person’s perspective of the experience. Remaining positive about the benefits of resolving problems can help couples grow together.

Know when to let it go

Forcing someone to go to therapy when they are not ready can cause more resistance. When you have done all you can to encourage and provide information, the other person must be ready and willing to make the decision to accept professional help. The most important thing is to preserve the trust in the relationship and be ready to go if

or when the other person comes ar ound. Until then, focus on your own personal growth. When the other person sees positive changes in you, this may be the encouragement they need to finally seek help for themself.

I work with many couples who have a partner resistant to therapy, and I tell them to encourage the other to seek one session. Once they feel comfortable enough in the first session, that will usually get the ball rolling. For more information about me and my services, please visit my website at www.AllenCounselingGroup.com. You can also reach me by email at Tami@ AllenCounselingGroup.com or by phone at 713-597-4499.

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