Health issues for Latinoswomen doctor

It is impossible for me to write  thoroughly about health issues that affect us, but I wanted to share with you some thoughts that have been in my mind lately.

Few days ago I went out with one of my friends who is an Oncologist and we got to talk about the problems surrounding the Hispanic community.  She later sent me some materials related to our conversation. I ended up reading about some interesting statistics.   The Latinos/Hispanics in the United States is a very heterogeneous group formed by 42 million people.  That means that we are around 14 percent of the population in the US.  We are the largest and fasting growing ethnic group in the USA.  60% are born in the USA.  By the year 2050, we expect to reach 96 million strong.  We are a lot of people! Way more than many populations of smaller Latin American countries.

Then the shocking numbers related to Cancer.  Compared to non Latinos White/Caucasian, Latinos have a very high percentage of Cancer incidence in General.

For example, in the overall incidence of cancer, 310 Latinas out of 100,000 will develop cancer, while 429 for every 100 thousand Non Latinas White will also get cancer.   What is worst, even though today Cancer is not necessarily a deadly disease, many people still die of Cancer because they don't get the proper diagnosis on time.

One of the causes of not getting diagnosed and treated, is the lack of insurance, not having the monetary resources to cover the expense, and lack of information in general about the disease and other resources and organizations that might be able to help people with Cancer. Then, in many cases, there are also cultural influences in not getting to a doctor on time.  Some people prefer to call a “curandero” or faith healer to treat whatever they think they have instead of going to a hospital or a clinic.

I don't want to be as radical as to say that the only way of treating cancer is with western medicine, but they have definitely the best resources to diagnose it.  Trying to have a healthy lifestyle, with a balanced diet, non smoking and regular exercise, will probably help you in the prevention.  For women, *** cancer has the highest incidence, and it can be detected on time with regular self examinations.
We are the ones in charge of out health, and we should try as much as possible to try to keep healthy.

 

Don't be scared about being sick, there might be a solution if you try to find out about what are your options.

Sally de la Puerta

Photo credit: zoofy the ji