Playing around with numbers and people's lives...

I was just thinking about it after reading the article on Health & African Americans. And honestly it made me seethe at a slow burn and now I am getting hopping mad.

(I guess I better watch that so I don't become a new stat)!

We hear so much much about all we are doing wrong and not so much about what we are doing right,it makes me boil. Again using myself as an example as a non-smoking, non-drinking never used drugs non-promiscuous aware, book reading reasonably intelligent post-menopausal almost 60 year old black woman among a host of other things, have to, no matter what I do, I will still be relegated to a stat! And people being the flawed human beings as they are, won't even look at you let along touch you can make health decisions about your life because of a stat, a stereotype...

Imagine for a moment going into an examining room having someone check your blood pressure with a small cuff which will not give an accurate reading on a plus size woman, then when its an exceptional high reading which should have cause them to call 911, do not bat an eye no matter how much you protest to the contrary, decided they need to weigh you take 3 inches off your height and proceeds to write in your chart a host of inaccurate info and then the doctor walks in and announces you are hypertensive and that's all it is to it & starts quoting statistics.

Oh yeah and start giving you pills to take.

No lab work, no concern about your life style or the fact that a very painful BP cuff + plus now you are totally P.O'd may have some bearing on why it is that high.

No mention of alternatives. No one mention about exercise, nutrition/meditation, or anything that can help a person work in concert with the "health care practioner".

And when stat or studies are done to get stats, how little is mentioned about that A.A. get fewer face on time with doctors who may (not necessarily with bad intentions) may be culturally ignorant, let along ones who do indeed have biases whether it is race, gender, age or size. Or that A.A. may be pushed a pill versus using alternatives to assist them in their health even among those who do have the health insurance or discretionary income.

Or our lives today despite all the advances still have to contend with a lot of institutionalized stressors which may bear (no pun intended) on obesity, stroke etc.

I am a pretty assertive person. Imagine what it must be like for one more passive or quiet who get shoved aside or ignored and takes the doctor's word as gospel truth which could be at least an educated guess?

It might not be malice involved, but we are left out too often when studies are done to see how something is or no working with race as a factor. Just like it is now being recognized that women's heart attacks are different in symptoms then a man or cancer or treatments may vary based on gender how is it not impossible that race may be a factor not only in research but in treatment?

Some may say this is a contradiction, but one is about attitude, the other is about accurate knowledge. I am surprised that some people still do not know that county hospitals, clinics etc where majority poor people go there are public records. I am not talking about the individual private medical records, but statistical information is indeed gathered from these places. And if proportionally, A.A. that are are poor (not every A.A. is poor) use these facilities guess what shows up in these reports?

Poor people's ,not African American people, information is used to prove the stat that renders you invisible when one walks into a office. And very few doctors know or may even care or too busy unfortunately to be abreast of this.

Understand, I am not demonizing doctors. Many are caring hardworking professionals...

Make no mistake I do believe because of all of this , it is incumbent for us to do all we can, to be as proactive as we can in our own health and well being.

Do it!

And if we are not being listen to fire them and get someone else. You are paying in one way or another for a service "rendered". Fire them or demand someone else or demand that they do a better job then what you are getting. But be armed with information. You do not have to go in shouting and screaming. Be your best advocate as you are the one with the most to lose. Seek out info instead of watching American Idol or hanging out at My Space Go to & join www.onebodyonelifetime.com for excellent information and great tips+ recipes in common down to earth no nonsense health & fitness. Join www.sparkspeople.com Look for & join the 50 Million Pound Challenge http://www.50millionpounds.com/ .

Instead of the soap and you can't live without your soap opera (know those folks work out and not watching you)!record it and go for a walk.

We can ill afford sitting passively on the side line while others run roughshod over us or even worse render us invisible or reduced to a stat. Or for that matter anecdotal in a article about all that is wrong rather what can be right!

O yes we can.