What extra health risks go with your ethnic group?….

Today's Post: Monday, 6-29-2009

Yesterday’s Parade magazine had a section of its article, “Who Gets Sick In America – And Why,” that lists various ethnic and genetic groups along with their extra health risks.

They also had some ideas on how to reduce those risks.

I’ll add two groups here and make slightly stronger emphasis on proactive prevention.

1. South Asian (mostly people from India & Pakistan)

This group has a surprisingly high risk of heart disease, particularly on the American Diet.

The curry and other spices and nonstarchy vegetables and lentils in their traditional diet are still heart-healthy choices.

Unfortunately, sweets, artificial sweeteners, & soft drinks that contain them; fatty meats; trans fats (hydrogenated oils) and foods that contain them; and refined grains and the foods that contain them in the common American Diet are NOT heart healthy for anyone and are apparently even worse if you are in this group.

And, the rice, traditional sweets, refined grain breads, and heavy use of butter in some cuisines from India are not much better. Instead of twice daily, once or twice a week or less is better.

In addition, this is a group that should have their HDL, LDL, triglycerides, C Reactive Protein inflammation, and HBA1C checked every 6 months or at least once a year. And in this group, every nondrug method should be used to put ALL these measures in the desirable range. The eating points above are important for everyone but begin to be quite important for this group. (We’ve done many posts on how these nondrug methods are effective and safer than statin drugs for this purpose.) Getting regular exercise is very important. And, usually using extra virgin olive oil instead of butter and taking omega 3 oils is also very important.

2. Asian American (Pacific Rim Asians of Japanese and Chinese and Korean ancestry, etc)

This group has a high rate of liver disease and liver cancer.

The Parade article suggests being sure to get regular check ups. You can also get yourself and your children the hepatitis B vaccine. In addition, you can take the herb milk thistle as it is protective to your liver. If and when there is a safe hepatitis C vaccine, this group should get it.

And, you can follow the many preventive ways to avoid ALL cancers. Avoid cigarette smoke totally. Take curcumin supplements &/or eat foods with curry spice often. Take at least 2,000 iu a day of vitamin D, and eat a lot of raw cruciferous vegetables every week. (The good news is that in this group, a high consumption of cabbage and related foods is already high in the traditional diet.

Also, in this group, it’s a good idea to be very sure to avoid heavy drinking and to use nondrug methods to improve heart health instead of statin drugs when at all possible.

3. Hispanics and Latinos.

This group tends to get type 2 diabetes, obesity, not get important vaccinations for their kids, and sometimes gets more tuberculosis than other groups.

Avoiding tuberculosis can be tough. But anyone in this group who has been exposed to it or may have it should get checked for it. And the treatment must be done exactly as prescribed and as long as it is prescribed for if you do get it.

The good news is that many in this group eat more vegetables in their traditional diets than most Americans.

Also, sweets, artificial sweeteners, & soft drinks that contain them; and refined grains and the foods that contain them in the common American Diet are NOT healthy for anyone and are apparently even worse if you are in this group. Along with no regular exercise, heavy use of fast food, and watching too much TV, these all tend to produce type 2 diabetes and make people fat.

Regular exercise is important for everyone in this group. But it is extremely important for the women in it. Boys in this group are often MUCH more active than girls. So the girls and women who want to avoid obesity and type 2 diabetes should get regular exercise in some way each week.

Women in this group often feed kids sweet treats. Giving them hugs, talking with them, and serving them their favorite healthy foods, or possibly going on walks with them can show them love without harming their health.

This group has a lot of traditional foods that use refined grains, Tortillas, Tostadas, Enchiladas, etc all have refined grains. These need to be far less frequent, or made with whole grains only, or the food or fillings they contain served without the refined grain part. The beans, vegetables, onions, tomatoes, and hot spices in the traditional cuisines are all winners.

The other thing this group needs to do is to get their HBA1C tested every 6 months. If you can buy online, you can now do this for about $30 a year with no doctor visit needed. (See our post on Thursday, 6-11-2009 for details.) Some health care systems will even do the tests free as a preventive measure. And, if the results are 6.0 or higher that means you need to redouble or triple the efforts just described; and also see a doctor ASAP if the results are about 6.3 or higher. You want your HBA1C to be at 5.8 or less every time.

Type 2 diabetes with HBA1C levels of over 7.0 damage every part of your blood vessels. Untreated, type 2 diabetes causes blindness, ruined kidneys, foot amputations, nerve damage and related pain, and heart attacks. And if you wait until you’ve have it a long time to discover you have it, the damage is often not reversible.

4. Native Americans have all the risks of Hispanics and Latinos PLUS they often have a genetic background that means they do not process alcohol well or are more likely to drink too much of it or both. So, they shouldn’t drink at all or only do it very modestly and under very strict control. And, they should follow all the preventive steps in the section above for Latinos and Hispanics.

5. African-Americans are often salt sensitive and prone to high blood pressure.

So they need to avoid packaged and processed food and fast food that is loaded with salt. They need to eat more fruits and vegetables. And they need to check their blood pressure every 3 to 6 months. If it gets to be 160 over 100 or more, they need to take drugs and take them every day as prescribed. It also helps if they get more nonstarchy vegetables and fresh fruit.

(Subway will allow you to get a lot of vegetables to put with your sandwich so if you pass on the bread and eat your sandwiches Atkins style and pass on the soft drinks and dessert and drink water instead, Subway is a great place to go to get fast food that won’t mess up your blood pressure. The salted fries in other fast food places are a disaster by comparison.)

African-Americans get more cancer and prostate cancer than everyone else as well. So routine cancer screenings if you can afford it make sense as the Parade article says. BUT, the best policy is to PREVENT cancer as more of a priority than most people do.

You can follow the many preventive ways to avoid ALL cancers. Avoid cigarette smoke totally. Take curcumin supplements &/or eat foods with curry spice often. Take at least 2,000 iu a day of vitamin D, and eat a lot of raw cruciferous vegetables every week. (Raw broccoli and cauliflower eaten once a week or more cut the rate of the dangerous kind of prostate cancer in HALF, for example.)

If you smoke, you need to quit. And you need to hang out with people who do not if you possibly can. Also, menthol cigarettes are popular in the Black community. If you smoke them, you are MUCH more likely to get lung cancer and other cancers – AND you’ll find it harder to quit. So if you smoke menthol cigarettes, if you can’t quit right away or aren’t quite ready, it will pay you to immediately throw out any menthol cigarettes and switch to cigarettes with none. In addition, because of the hotter flame, if you still smoke, NEVER use a lighter again. Use matches only or don’t smoke until you can get one. That single step will prevent a lot of lung cancer.

6. White Americans can get all the things these other groups get. So doing all of the preventive steps listed above is important. Preventing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity are critically important in this group.

Unfortunately, in many parts of the mid-West and South Eastern United States smoking; eating the worst kinds of snacks and fast foods; and drinking soft drinks are all very high.

So, in those parts of the country avoiding cigarette smoke, not smoking, and never using a lighter are all critically important as are doing the other steps to prevent cancer and heart disease.

Worse, these same states tend to be the fattest in the county. So ALL the steps listed for the Hispanics, Latinos, and South Asians for avoiding obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease are important for the people who live there.