During this
season of thanksgiving, one of the things that I am most thankful for is freedom
of choice. Access to medical care and information gives me the opportunity of informed
health choices. Am I making the right health choices? I certainly hope that I
am.
Jim-Ree
Museum is having its third annual health fair June 2, 2018 from 10:00 am to
2:00 pm. We are thankful for all the doctors and other care givers who volunteer
to make this event possible. The health fair is a community outreach effort to do
health care checkups and to disseminate information about health-related concerns.
Each year we lose family, neighbors and community leaders to illnesses that may
have been prevented through informed choice. So many people believe that they
cannot control their inherited diseases, diseases that have plagued their
family members over the generations, so they do nothing to help themselves and
put their well-being in fate’s hands.
My family doctor,
George Cleland of Athens, Georgia recently visited his birth home in Ghana,
Africa. While there, he did a health check, seeing roughly 200 people one
afternoon. What grabbed my attention about the visit was that Dr. Cleland revealed
that all the villagers he saw that afternoon suffered from high blood pressure
and that some of their blood pressures were so volatile that they needed
immediate care.
“High blood pressure,” I questioned? I was just a little taken aback. I always have believed that high blood pressure was a result of a combination of the big three: stress, obesity, and salt. I incorrectly assumed that Africans did not have the abnormality, high blood pressure, that so many African Americans have.
“High blood pressure,” I questioned? I was just a little taken aback. I always have believed that high blood pressure was a result of a combination of the big three: stress, obesity, and salt. I incorrectly assumed that Africans did not have the abnormality, high blood pressure, that so many African Americans have.
Dr. Cleland said, “All the villagers are very,
very skinny. Only the wealthy is fat there. The villagers that I saw are all poor.
They get plenty of exercise. They walk everywhere. Their high blood pressure
issue is related to their salt intake.”
As I
digested that information, I thought about my own family. My siblings and
myself have high blood pressure. We take high blood pressure medication to
control it, just as my parents did. My effort to cut back on my salt intake is
to eliminate processed and fast foods from my diet. (I recently added fresh
ginger, to help combat my high cholesterol, as a part of my daily regimen.) As
I continue to monitor my blood pressure (and my cholesterol), I am contemplating
restricting my diet even more by switching to a vegan lifestyle, a move that
one of my siblings has already made.
High blood
pressure, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and prostate cancer are diseases that
disproportionately affect the African American community. Awareness of health resources and treatment of
diseases is key for people to make informed health choices. The June Health
Fair is an initiative that we hope will benefit people in this community,
easing away the dense fog so the light of informed choice gleams through.
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