Parker-2/20/10-Go Red Convention
This was our longest visit yet. It was from 10-3. I went with Cheyenne, Ruby T and Cheyenne’s mom, Henryne. We went up to The Harlem Hospital on 135th street. It was a long ride on the subway. We had to take 3 different trains and a taxi to get up there.
There were a few people sitting at tables and handing out different kinds of flyers and talking to people about heart disease. We were showed in to this huge auditorium. We sat and listened to a lot of lectures on heart diseases, also called cardiovascular disease.
We met a doctor called Icilma Fergus. She is the chief of Cardiology Department of Medicine at the Harlem Hospital. She had PowerPoint that had a lot of different facts and graphs on it; many of the other presentations were very similar.
Dr. Fergus taught us that one in 2 women die of heart attack and 60% more will die of CVD than from cane.
Cardiovascular Disease. Cardio means any disease of the heart and vascular means blood vessels. The public does not understand the current danger of heart disease.
Some facts of CVD
-Caused 40% of deaths in a year
-Expensive medical care
-27% if men, 44% of women will die within a year
-Responsible for 100,00 lives
-It is 80% preventable
-Leading cause of death for African Americans
-Rick Factors
Overweight/Obesity
Physical inactivity
Diabetes
Smoking (cuts your life by 25%)
-Smoking is a higher risk of CVD or stroke than lung cancer.
High blood pressure/cholesterol
Age <Non Preventable
Family History <Non Preventable
Heart Attack: Symptoms
-Pressure at center chest
-Discomfort in arm, shoulder, neck, jaw, stomach, and back
-Shortness of breath
-Fatigue
-Getting a cold sweat, nausea, weakness
What are Signs and Symptoms That Women Have?
-You can present with no symptoms
-Sometimes there are not specific symptoms
-Angena: Chest pain resulting in a heart attack.
To Prevent Heart Disease/Heart Attack
-Know your blood pressure
-Get tested for Diabetes
-Don’t smoke.
-Get tested for cholesterol.
-Maintain a healthy weight.
-Don’t drink too much alcohol.
-Find ways to cope with stress.
-Exercise.
We also heard Olajide A. Williams speak his is the Associate Director of Neurology at the Harlem hospital. He showed us a video called Hip-Hop Stroke. It is an organization where they teach kids about what to prevent having a stroke, to be healthy and exercise. It uses children for first responders and teaches them about health. A stroke is a shortage of oxygen traveling to the brain. It’s like a brain attack. Its causes are mainly unhealthy food and lack of exercise. Something they taught was called FAST, it stands for Face, Arms, Speech and Time. Face and Arms is when they can control their face and arms. Their speech becomes slurred and time stands for time to call 911. From this experience many kids have saved lives. http://hiphoppublichealth.org
From Reba Williams, Adrea Card and Vickie Powell we learnt about Hypertension, Diabetes, and Cholesterol.
Hypertension is when someone has really high blood pressure. When it is over 140/90. 50-65 million people in the US have high blood pressure. High blood pressure is bad because it is the number one cause of CVD. When having high blood pressure damages arteries causing them to become stiff and narrow. Then it can’t get blood to work right can cause a heart attack.
How to Lower Blood Pressure
-Loose weight if overweight
-Exercise
-1 drink per day
-Reduce stress
-Diet to heart healthy
Diabetes is a progressive disease in which your body doesn’t make or respond properly to insulin. In other words your body doesn’t let sugar turn into energy. Diabetes doubles the risk of second heart attack in women but not in men. 65% of diabetes will die of a heart disease or stroke.
Cholesterol builds up on the walls of arteries and causes blood clots. It stops the heart from getting the blood it needs so this causes a heart attack.
We then had lunch and after went back to the auditorium. We chose to go to a workshop called Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyles by Joan Culpepper-Morgan, who is the Chief of Gastroenterology at the Harlem Hospital. She taught us about high fructose corn syrup and about food in general.
Dr. Culpepper-Morgan describes High Fructose Corn Syrup as the great Satan of our diet. She taught us about obesity and its fast growing rate. She told us that when James Watt made High fructose corn syrup in the 70’s it was also the time when the obesity rate was increasing rapidly. Now one 1/3 of women in America is obese. It can reduce your life by 2-10 years.
Almost everyone has eaten its because its in almost everything its in all sodas, in ketchup. The reason why companies use it so much is because its in the form of liquid so its easy to mix, its cheap and it also increases the shelf life of an object, which already tells you its bad. Anything that doesn’t go off for years means its bad. If something doesn’t rot or get moldy its because bacteria and mold don’t want to grow on it because its bad food. Unlike sugar it isn’t ok in moderation it shouldn’t be consumed at all. It produces bad fat. There are two different types of fat good and bad. Bad fat it’s created by high fructose corn syrup it surrounds the organs and is creating less space for them. The good fat is on the outside of your organs and is created by regular sugar.
After our workshop it was time for us to go. We had an extremely informative day. And it had many connections to Fast Food Nation and the growing obesity of America. It also related to science and learned a lot about the circulatory system.
