Friday findings

Good morning, 
The weekend is upon us. I hope that you plan to do something special for yourself overt this Valentines weekend.
As we continue in black history month I wanted to share some findings.

Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most

WebMD Feature by Daniel J. DeNoon

Several deadly diseases strike black Americans harder and more often than they do white Americans.

Fighting back means genetic research. It means changing the system for testing new drugs. It means improving health education. It means overcoming disparities in health care. It means investments targeted to the health of black Americans. And the evidence so far indicates that these investments will pay health dividends not just for racial minorities, but for everyone.

Yet we're closer to the beginning of the fight than to the end. Some numbers:

*Diabetes is 60% more common in black Americans than in white Americans. Blacks are up to 2.5 times more likely to suffer a limb amputation and up to 5.6 times more likely to suffer kidney disease than other people with diabetes.
African-Americans are three times more likely to die of asthma than white Americans.
*Deaths from lung scarring -- sarcoidosis -- are 16 times more common among blacks than among whites. The disease recently killed former NFL star Reggie White at age 43.
*Despite lower tobacco exposure, black men are 50% more likely than white men to get lung cancer.
*Strokes kill 4 times more 35- to 54-year-old black Americans than white Americans. Blacks have nearly twice the first-time stroke risk of whites.
Blacks develop high blood pressure earlier in life -- and with much higher blood pressure levels -- than whites. Nearly 42% of black men and more than 45% of black women aged 20 and older have high blood pressure.
*Cancer treatment is equally successful for all races. Yet black men have a 40% higher cancer death rate than white men. African-American women have a 20% higher cancer death rate than white women.

I don't give you these stays to scare you but to encourage all of us to do better. Every day that you do something to eliminate these risk for yourself you increase the length of time you to be here with your family.
As always remember...live Blessed