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Jabari Asim: Closing the Racial Gap in Medical TreatmentPosted on Jul 29, 2006By Jabari Asim WASHINGTON—Recent news reports of health disparities between native-born blacks and foreign-born blacks living in the United States caught my attention, but didn’t surprise me. Like many other African Americans, I’ve long known that we tend to lag behind whites and other ethnic groups where health issues are concerned. So when I read that studies suggest black immigrants initially have lower rates of heart disease and cancer than we do, I greeted the information with a weary sigh. At least the news gave me a chance to talk with LaSalle Leffall Jr., one of the world’s leading cancer specialists. In his memoir, “No Boundaries,’’ he recalled coming of age professionally during the mid-1960s, when American physicians “were just beginning to focus on statistics showing that a disproportionate number of African Americans were dying of cancer.’’ In 1973, Leffall was co-author of a landmark study documenting blacks’ disproportionate cancer death rates, especially from prostate, lung and colorectal cancers. Five years later, he became the first black president of the American Cancer Society. While leading that organization, he convened the National Conference on Meeting the Challenge of Cancer Among Black Americans, the first such gathering of its kind. I met him at his office at the Howard University medical complex. A former chair of the university’s department of surgery for 25 years, he is now its Charles R. Drew professor of surgery. I asked him about the disparity he has been wrestling with his entire career. “The gap is still there,’’ he said. “Do problems remain? Yes. For example, when you talk about the five-year survival rate for any cancer, African-Americans will lag 10% to 12% behind. Even though the survival rate has increased, we’re still behind the white population.’’ Leffall and his colleagues attribute the imbalance to a number of factors, including lack of access to quality care, and the prevalence of more aggressive forms of disease. “For example,’’ he said, “breast cancer is one of the few common cancers that is more common in white women than black women. But in young women under the age of 35 to 40, breast cancer is more common in black women and it tends to be more aggressive. That’s why all the genetic and molecular studies are being done now. You hear about genetic markers and molecular markers and tumor signaling. All of these things are so important because they will help us determine why that tumor is more aggressive in the African American.’’ Lack of available, accessible and affordable healthcare, along with basic human nature, sometimes results in patients who don’t come in to see Leffall until their cancer is quite advanced. “There are only two symptoms that make patients go to doctors,’’ he observed. “Pain and blood. Pain because it hurts and blood because it frightens them.’’ To counter such reluctance, Leffall says doctors continue to stress the importance of preventive procedures such as Pap smears, mammograms and colonoscopies. He also emphasized the need to maintain a positive mental attitude. Doing so won’t necessarily improve survival rates, but it does improve the quality of patients’ lives. “That’s so important,’’ he said, “because if it’s one thing we know, it’s not just that you live but how you live.’’ By any measure, Leffall, 76, has led an exemplary life. In addition to his pioneering role with the American Cancer Society, he was also the first black president of the American College of Surgeons. Since 2002 he has chaired the President’s Cancer Panel, a three-member group that monitors national cancer programs and reports directly to the president. Those are just a few of his accomplishments. “I confess I have always been a man of ambition,’’ he says in his memoir. So how does a man of ambition keep focused amid such daunting odds? “The reason that I don’t get frustrated is because I see so many advances that have been made,’’ he explained. “When I came to medical school 58 years ago, nobody was cured of leukemia. Nobody in the world. Now if a child develops leukemia they have an 80% to 85% chance of being cured. ... When I came to school, roughly 15% to 20% of patients who had cancer of the colon-rectum had to have a colostomy. Now it’s fewer than 5% of patients. Only a very small percentage. So when I see these kinds of advances, that’s what gives you hope. As a cancer surgeon and a cancer specialist, I have to say that I have boundless optimism tempered by good judgment.’’ Not a bad prescription for the rest of us, while we continue to close the gap. Previous item: Playing the Atheism Card Against Pat Tillman's Family Next item: John Dean Lauds 'Playing President' Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment |
By WereBear, August 4, 2006 at 7:22 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Isn’t this subject just another ploy to manipulate the social conscience toward nationalizing the health care system?
And this is bad… how?
Other nations manage to have a health care system that covers everyone, and what REALLY happens? They have a healthier nation. They have a LOWER infant mortality rate that the United States (28th in the world in 1998, the last year the statistics were compiled.) They have a thriving economy because business is not either scrambling to get lousy health care for their employees OR giving up on it entirely. Or did you miss that new auto factory going to Canada in part because there was national health care there?
I imagine you are talking as someone who either has health care, or THINKS they do. The level of coverage keeps dropping, so it’s a rude awakening to reach for your health insurance, and find out that, whatever it is, that’s no longer covered.
Because I’m a compassionate person, I’m not wishing it on you. But as a compassionate person, I urge you to consider the millions in this country who cannot get health insurance, and thus cannot prevent a small problem turning into a fatal, expensive one.
Report thisBy Jwj, August 3, 2006 at 6:23 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Everyone misses the obvious answer as to why American Blacks are more prone to illness. It’s because of the cradle to grave stress brought on by being born essentially an outcast, a non-white in to an historically white, priviledged racist society that can not be trusted.
Africans, Jamaican’s etc. don’t have that stress.
Why is that so hard to admit?
Report thisBy Raymond B. Brown, August 2, 2006 at 8:17 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
American Medical Association is like a union it respresents the doctors- not the patients. The FDA protects the legal drug dealers, and Congress protects all of them. Wake up people it is not about Race- it is about class.
The media wants the cattle (us) to focus on race, as the ‘elite’ follow their plans for a NWO. These writers and reporters are slaves to the corporations, we have no free press anymore.
Why is there no attention in any media source about “Chemical-Trails”, “HAARP in Alaska” “Weather Control” by 2025 by our military.
The biggest story of the century has been ignored for 60 years by the press. When you walk outside look up America and the World populations “do those white trails in the sky vanish” after seconds or are they still there minutes to hours later? Chem-trails are deadly chemicals sprayed to control the weather, behaviors of animals, and create new disease and virus we breath and absorb into our skin.
You say I am a nut! Well prove this is all BS. Why then was there a patent for this issued in August, 1987 (#4686605)? Why is there a paper from the Air Force College Weather Control 2025?
Chlorine in our water, additives and chemicals in our food and now the court threatening to destroy our lakes and rivers.
Report thisBy bazz zgra, August 2, 2006 at 12:12 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
IT is rather unfortunate that racism is again to blame for deprivation of optimum healthcare and treatment for NabABs-Native born American Blacks.
Report thisOne of the first thing to examine is the lack of cohesion among Nababs. Foreign blacks share, communicate and care for each other, but Nababs? No. There is so much social fractionation in just about every community and black churches, that sharing useful information has a premium. If they are the same economic class, same skin color, a “good hair person”, same church, and same theology, then a certain degree of sharing may come. I recall when Trader Joes and Costco first came to a certain Midwest town, it took almost a year to see the first black shopping at either place, and it took almost the same time to see more than one. The point being that certain useful information become “kept secrets”, until their white friends tell them. This is a kind of mindset or pattern that has been around since reconstruction. “I know something that you dont know, therefore I am better than you”. The black church used to be a center of communal information distribution, but not any more. Now its all about Jeeesus Saves.. and the devil invests..
Of course no one is going to admit or concur.
By Collin, August 1, 2006 at 12:50 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
And after the libs had their way with the social agenda for 2+ decades, one would have thought the problem solved. Perhaps Libs should rethink their “solutions”.
Let’s not be coy about it. Isn’t this subject just another ploy to manipulate the social conscience toward nationalizing the health care system?
Collin
http://evangelicalperspective.blogspot.com
Report thisBy P Revere, July 30, 2006 at 7:19 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Racism is still prevalent in the health care industry as it is in all phases of life. We are approaching the one-year anniversary of Katrina. No one has forgotten what the White House did to the residents of the Ninth Ward.
Report thisBy nancy Rader, July 29, 2006 at 6:05 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Micky may be right, and I believe that stress is also implicated. Being a minority today is an ongoing stress; and it is stress which is the link between emotion and the body. Nutrition is definitely worth consideration, especially antioxidents like E. Suger and refined carbohydrates are anti-nutrients, and all that talk about avoiding sweets is not just your mama’s idea. Good nutrition helps your body fight stress even before any symptoms appear. PS some nutrients also reduce the urge for alcohol and other drugs.
Report thisBy Mickey, July 29, 2006 at 1:40 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
As usual, the medical profession has their head in the sand. The reason that native-born blacks have higher cancer rates than foreign-born blacks living in the United States is because of their diet. Look at the typical diets of both groups, and it becomes clear who is eating more fat, sugar, and synthetic substances. That’s what is causing more cancer.
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