“I was always health conscious. Sometimes I would drink socially, but I always did things that were productive to my health,” said Hickman.  “My major problem was stress.”

Everyone gets down occasionally, sometimes you have a good reason, other times you’re down for reasons unbeknownst even to yourself, but you’re still down. And then we all moan and complain about being depressed until we snap out of our mood and carry on life as normal. Psychologist Dr. Yolanda Brooks agrees, stating; “Black women tend to present themselves to society as strong, resilient human beings… you can trace this dynamic back to slavery, when a woman had to pretend she was okay when she was actually suffering inside.”

Doctors Hospital, a physician-owned hospital at 510 W. Tidwell,
is dedicated to serving the underserved area of Acres Home and
surrounding communities rather than moving to the wealthier suburbs.                                                                               

There is a story in Greek mythology about the phoenix, a bird that ignites itself at the end of its life cycle and then becomes reborn out of the ashes. Like the phoenix, physician-owned Doctors Hospital has risen above the crises that threatened its existence and it has done so because of the doctors’ passion for the community they serve.

When other hospitals were lessening their commitment to the North Houston region in favor of the more affluent suburban populations, the physicians at Doctors in Acres Home balked at the idea, insisting the needs were greater in the under-served community. Doctors has a history of rising to the occasion.

Within the walls of the medical facility, located at 510 W. Tidwell, are individual doctors and nurses who have a passion for the people they serve, and go beyond the call of duty to meet their needs. Among them is Brenda Thomas, RN, Clinical Nurse Manager for Outpatient Services. She has served Doctors for over five years, but has been in nursing for over 37. She has seen the needs of this community first hand, and knows the lengths the hospital will go in order to serve their patients.

Medical facility in predominantly low-income community known as the
“hospital with a heart”

HOUSTON- Many recall the riveting movie, “John Q” starring Denzel Washington and Kimberly Elise. Washington portrayed a father whose son was dying due to a failing heart. The hospital charged with his care had the power to save the boy and would do so, if the price were right.

“I am not going to bury my son,” John Q shouted to hostage negotiators. “My son is going to bury me.”

Viewers sympathized with an armed John Q as he took over the hospital emergency room demanding that they save his son, before he would release the hostages. The villain became the hero, not only on the big screen, but also in hearts of viewers across the country. That was in 2001.

In the late 1960s, schizophrenia became a Black man’s disease.

In late 1963, Malcolm X was asked to comment on the assassination of President John Kennedy.  He called it a case of “America’s chickens coming home to roost.”  Outraged by this comment, the Nation of Islam prohibited their rising star from speaking publicly for 90 days.  When that period expired, Malcolm announced that he was severing ties with the nation.

ATLANTA- Each year, Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved hosts its Freedom Voices Conference to discuss some of the nation’s most pressing health issues impacting people of color, as well as those seeking to re-enter their communities after incarceration. Community Voices, part of the Satcher Health Leadership at Morehouse School of Medicine, held this year’s event at the Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta, on October 7.  In workshops, top experts discussed how to better secure options for people in need of substance abuse treatment; providing effective mental health care in communities of color; and ensuring that ex-convicts have access to public benefits that will ease re-entry into their communities.

These issues have been identified as some of the most significant challenges faced by communities of color, especially as unemployment and its related stress increases in minority communities.  At the same time, city, state and federal responses to these issues are on the decline as the government cuts back on social services following the recession.

If Black women are less likely to get breast
cancer, why are they more likely to die from it?

It’s not like the question hasn’t been asked before. However, each time it is raised, suspicions mount. Years ago, Arsenio Hall said, “it’s something that makes you go hmmm.”

Actress LisaRaye McCoy  visited Houston as Global
Ambassador for Susan G. Komen For The Cure Circle
of Promise. The campaign seeks to engage and educate
African-American women about the high risk of breast
cancer within Black communities.

AUSTIN – According to the World Health Organization, about 3,000 people end their own lives, and for every person who dies, there are 20 more people who unsuccessfully attempt a suicide every day. Sept. 10 was designated as World Suicide Prevention Day to draw attention to this crisis.

It is the third leading cause of death for Black men between the ages 15 and 24. This is why it is important to notice signs of depression and encourage counseling for those struggling with mental health issues.

Coffee-Fletcher

Roy Jones Jr., who stopped Jeff Lacy after 10 rounds to retain the NABO light
heavyweight championship title last August, has added another opponent—childhood obesity.

Boxer works to stifle the risk of heart disease and stroke among African-Americans at the adolescent level, starting by knocking out obesity

In February, First Lady Michelle Obama announced a national goal of ending the challenge of childhood obesity,  slated to help today’s children reach adulthood at a healthy weight. The nationwide campaign, “Let’s Move,”  fights against childhood obesity, which has reached epidemic levels in the U.S., by building on effective strategies, and mobilizing public and private resources. “Let’s Move” will provide tools to schools, families and communities to help children become more active, eat better, and get healthy. States, communities, non-profit and for-profit organizations, along with leading children’s health foundations have banded together to create the Partnership for a Healthier America.

Later, Mrs. Obama announced her “Childhood Obesity Plan” by stating, “Today, the Task Force has submitted their report outlining important steps that federal agencies and their partners —including businesses and the private sector—will take in the months and years ahead to help keep our children healthy. For the first time—this is the key—we’re setting really clear goals and benchmarks and measurable outcomes that will help tackle this challenge one step, one family and one child at a time,” Mrs. Obama said.

Did you know 3.7 million; 14.7 percent of all non-Hispanic Blacks ages 20 and older have diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes? About 40 percent of adults ages 40 to 74 – or 41 million people—have pre-diabetes, a condition that raises a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes. African-Americans are twice as likely as Whites of similar age to develop diabetes. In Harris County alone, approximately 18 percent of seniors are living with diabetes.

First Lady Michelle Obama introduces her “Let’s Move” campaign
against childhood obesity.

By DR. HENRI TREADWELL, DELORES STAMPS, MARY CURRY
Contributing Writers

ATLANTA— Researchers, physicians and policymakers are increasingly recognizing the physical and mental health threats stemming from the wave of childhood obesity sweeping across the country. It is equally important that the search for solutions focuses on the root causes—the school, economic and community conditions that are incubators for this epidemic.

A Donate Life America survey revealed an increase in the number of minorities registered as organ, eye and tissue donors. Nearly 90 million people in the United States are designated donors.

AUSTIN- Free heart screening will take place on July 31 at the Heart Hospital of Austin, 3801 N. Lamar Blvd. Championship Hearts Foundation screens young athletes, ages 14-18, for a genetic heart condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). This condition, which causes a thickening of the heart wall, typically does not present any symptoms and can lead to obstruction of blood flow and an erratic heartbeat. It is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young people and effects roughly 1 in 500.

Earnest Gibson, president of Riverside General Hospital accepts a check
from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (center). Other participants
include (left to right) Adam C. Walmus, director of the Michael E. DeBakey
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Brigadier General Mark A. Ediger and Jacobi
Montgomery, retired United States Army Iraqi War Veteran.   
                                                                           Photo by Roger Jackson

Before Jada Pinkett Smith took on the role of Chief Nursing Officer Christina Hawthorne in the television drama “Hawthorne,” which made its debut last year, where she also serves as executive producer, and before Eric La Salle burst through the operating doors in the medical drama “ER” as Dr. Peter Benton in 1994, and even before  Diahann Carroll broke racial ground with the role of Julia Baker, a widowed Black nurse in 1968’s “Julia,” real life doctors and nurses  had been a staple of Houston’s medical scene.

By the time Hal Kanter who was inspired to pitch the story of Julia to network executives, Riverside General Hospital, formerly the Houston Negro Hospital, had been in existence some 40  years, having officially opened the summer of 1927 on Ennis and Elgin Streets in Houston’s segregated Third Ward area. However, it wasn’t the first, there was a successful model before it. Provident Hospital in Chicago, now Provident Hospital of Cook County, is considered America’s first free standing Black Hospital, although it is no longer considered a Black-run hospital.

Provident got its start in 1889, when Emma Reynolds, who wanted to be a nurse, was denied admission by each of Chicago’s nursing schools simply because she was Black. Her ambition might have died if her brother, Pastor Louis Reynolds, of St. Stephen’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, had not approached Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, a Black surgeon for assistance.

SAN ANTONIO- Summer is upon us. The sunny days make it fun for kids to play outside and swim, and adults can enjoy gardening and cooking outdoors. 

A fundraiser for the National Ataxia Foundation fundraiser will be held in Katy, Texas at the  Cinco Ranch Golf and Country Club, 23030 Cinco Ranch Blvd. Katy, Tx. 77450 from 7:30pm to 12:30am on July 31. According to Angela Cloud, the Houston Chapter Support Group Leader, to help raise money for this event, she and her family are hosting a charity benefit and a posthumous celebration of what would have been her husband, Milan’s 50^th birthday.  The event will include:   a fashion show, silent auction, and a birthday celebration.

Couple discovers physical, financial benefits

Linda and Raymond Robinson have always been passionate about helping people. That’s why they became so excited when they were made aware of CieAura, a company that uses holographic chips to assist people suffering with insomnia and also helps people manage pain and experience more energy, along with mental focus, clarity, concentration and stamina.

According to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, African-American women are less likely to receive health care. When they do get care, they are more likely to get it late.
That’s why events such as the Sister II Sister Health & Wellness Breakfast are so important. The event was hosted by the Cy-Fair Chapter/National Women of Achievement in observance of National Health Month on May 1, at Good Hope Baptist Church’s Center for Hope, 3015 N. MacGregor Way. Eighty guests attended the informative event, designed to highlight women’s issues.

WASHINGTON, D.C. Twenty-two percent of 18 to 44- year-old women in the United States reported hearing more about lupus compared to a year ago, according to a national online survey released today by the Ad Council.
In an effort to further engage minority women, who are at the greatest risk for lupus, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health and The Advertising Council are distributing new radio public service advertisements in time for World Lupus Day.

A few months before the passing of the historic health bill, a Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program screened over 1,000 men in L.A. The uninsured are clearly the biggest beneficiaries of the legislation, which would extend the health care safety net for the lowest-income Americans.                               Photo courtesy of Po Politickin

   ATLANTA—When health reform was signed into law, Vice President Joe Biden was ridiculed for his use of an off-color adjective in describing the legislation to President Obama.  But lost in the rhetorical battle over health reform is the fact that Biden’s words were accurate: This is a big deal!

“Deadly Delivery: the Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA,” faults discrimination, a lack of nationally enforced standards and barriers to adequate maternal care as contributing to the high death rate among women of color giving birth. ©iStockphoto.com/lostinbids

November 26, 1983 is a day I’ll always remember—not because it was the day that my only child, Gwennitta Deniece was born, but because it was the day that both she and my wife Gwenevere almost died. That Saturday morning started out like most others until my wife started having contractions. But not to worry, we had been though the Lamaze classes and were thoroughly prepared as we sped towards the Women’s Hospital in Houston’s medical center.

African-Americans are only half as likely as Whites to receive needed care. This can give the impression that mental illness is more prevalent among Blacks than it is.

The movie, Precious, rocked America, waking it up to the reality of mental illness in the Black community. Some became angered by what they considered a stereotypical portrayal of a single Black mother raising a child alone.
But the life lived by the movie character “Precious,” portrayed by Gabbie Sidibe, and her mother, “Mary,” played by actress and comedienne Monique, was anything but typical. Inspired by the novel, Push, by Sapphire, Precious, tells the story of a family battling a severe, untreated mental health disorder.

It came to my attention that sometimes when we go to the doctor and he or she gives us our prescriptions, and we go to the pharmacy to get it filled, we aren’t always given what our doctor prescribed. I can hear some of you now, “What do you mean, I’m not given the medication my doctor asked for?”  

That’s right!  You’re not always given the prescription that’s written down.  
As I said in the title of this article, it’s not illegal, but it ain’t right. And no, I’m not talking about a generic drug versus brand name drugs.  

In the medical world they call it “therapeutic substitution,” but in the real world it’s called plain ole drug switching. Here’s how it works.

For many African-Americans, excessive, long-term

stress is often a major contributing factor in the

development or exacerbation of many serious health

conditions and illnesses such as anxiety, depression,

high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, diabetes,

ulcers, and infertility.
No matter how much they earn or where they live,

stress is a burden that seems to weigh down far too

many African Americans. The hazardous level of

stress faced by African Americans is keeping their

bodies constantly on edge causing their health and

mental wellness to be at risk. This Black History Month,

wellness advocates, Mental Health America of Greater

Houston and the Houston Wellness Association are

encouraging African Americans to take better care of

their health by managing their stress—in their personal

lives and at work.

No matter how much they earn or where they live, stress is a burden that seems to weigh down far too many African Americans. The hazardous level of stress faced by African Americans is keeping their bodies constantly on edge causing their health and mental wellness to be at risk.  This Black History Month, wellness advocates, Mental Health America of Greater Houston and the Houston Wellness Association are encouraging African Americans to take better care of their health by managing their stress—in their personal lives and at work. 

“Stress is a normal response and the body’s way of protecting you,” said Betsy Schwartz, president and CEO of Mental Health America of Greater Houston. “When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert.”