Health, Cancer, Hispanics & Getting Diagnosed

admin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:14:00 GMT

Health issues for Latinos

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

Real Latinas Have Curves & Sing Karaoke

admin — Sun, 04 May 2008 14:59:00 GMT

Sally de la Puerta
5/4/08- A couple of months ago I moved back to New York City
after almost 5 years of absence. I know the city
pretty well and I can get around all over without any
problems except for Queens. I’ve got lost so many
times in Queens is not even funny! But I’ll tell you
about Queens some other time.

I went with few of my friends to a place in Washington
Heights (the upper side of Manhattan), to have a drink
and have fun. The place is called Fibe and it is
located on Broadway and 171st street. The food is
pretty good the prices are not too expensive, the
service is very good, and the ambiance was great!
The best part, it was filled with Latinos/Hispanics
that were there to enjoy the music and the Saturday
night Karaoke.

From the DJ (I can’t remember her name) to the people
singing and dancing, we all had a pretty good time.
Since I don’t need to be drunk to make a fool of
myself, I was one of the first people to sing a song
in Karaoke, which by the way, offered songs in English
and in Spanish!

There was a table with like 10 people, most of them
women, and they were singing most of the songs. As
time was passing, one could see the liberating effects
of the alcohol, seeing that more and more singers were
up to the microphone. In between singers, there was
“dancing” music, and it was a great pleasure to see
real Bachata dancers! There is a trick on the feet
that not everybody knows how to do it!
So, if you are in New York, or you plan on coming any
time soon, this is a great place to party
Latino/Hispanic style.

The best thing for me was to see real women. I mean,
women with real curves! They were not afraid of their
few extra pounds, and definitely not ashamed of moving
to the rhythm of whatever music was on! Those Latinas
were shaking everything and having so much fun! I
wish these women were the ones we could see more as
role models and in the cover of magazines. I wish I
could be more like them… because I might be able to
carry a tune every once in a while, but when I try
dancing, I’m a sack of potatoes!

-Sally de la Puerta.

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Health, Cancer, Hispanics & Getting Diagnosed

Real Latinas Have Curves & Sing Karaoke