The age of social media has seen the normalization of various aspects of life previously considered taboo. A primary example of this is mental health awareness. Instagram and Twitter are overflowing with examples of females (some with large followings) sharing vulnerable stories about their struggles with depression, anxiety, and more. They openly discuss their journey...Continue reading
The onset of the pandemic in 2020 led to a substantial increase in mental health challenges. In their August 2020 report, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that the “prevalence of symptoms” of anxiety and depression were more than three times higher than they were a year before. Roughly 40% of respondents to their...
The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed minority communities chronically neglected by the healthcare system. The incalculable impact on Alaska Native and American Indian (AN/AI) communities exemplifies all too well the consequences of indigenous erasure on pandemic resiliency and recovery.
Dear Healthy Men: A few weeks ago, you did a column on how short men face discrimination when compared to taller men. I’m wondering whether the same kind of thing applies to men who are overweight or obese. A: Although we all know that we’re not supposed to judge books by their cover, the truth is...Continue reading
April is National Minority Health Month, making it the perfect time to focus on the often-significant disparities in health and wellbeing that affect racial and ethnic minorities across our country. But it’s important to remember that these inequities exist every single day of the year, not just in April. What do we mean by “disparities”...Continue reading
African Americans could expect to live 14.6 fewer years than white Americans in 1900 but the gap between the lifespan of African American men and white men was slightly smaller at 14.1 years. By 2015, the gap for both sexes had shrunk to 3.4 years, based on Centers for Disease Control statistics, though the gap...
A search in the iPhone app store for “mindfulness-based stress reduction” produces a seemingly endless stream of applications devoted to meditation. But do they work as well as having a live person with whom you can interact on the other side of the screen? A study funded in 2020 by Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute...Continue reading
Living in a rural area doesn’t mean you will be less likely to suffer from mental health problems. It does mean you will be less likely to have easy access to diagnosis and care. Even though rural residents are in poorer health generally than those living elsewhere, they have less access to treatment, partly because...Continue reading
This past year has brought so much uncertainty and hardship to so many people throughout the world due the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of Wednesday, March 10, 2021, there have been roughly 29 million cases and just over 526,000 deaths in the United States of...
In the impoverished communities of the Mississippi Delta, where prostate cancer death rates are more than 28 men per 100,000, residents were leery about the concept of research. Delta residents were deeply concerned about exploitation and feared that participating in cancer research would make them guinea pigs. So Freddie White-Johnson created a community cancer outreach...