February is Heart Health Month. And it’s also Black History Month. So it seems fitting to talk about African Americans and heart disease.
posted Feb 13, 2012
You’ve probably heard it before, but African Americans have a BIG problem with heart disease and America’s Health Rankings proves this. While the report showed improvements in smoking cessation and cardiovascular deaths, it also shows that rates of obesity and smoking – two leading indicators of heart disease - among African American adults outpaces that of whites in the majority of states. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of all American women, and African American women are at greater risk for heart disease than any other ethnic group. Yet they are less likely than white women to be aware that they have major risk factors. One of the most important of these risk factors is high blood pressure. African American adults are 40 percent more likely to have high blood pressure. As a result, the death rate from heart disease is 35 percent higher among African-American women than among their white counterparts.
Preventing heart disease is so important that there’s a new campaign underway, called the Million Hearts Initiative, with the goal of preventing one million heart attacks and strokes over the next five years. Million Hearts focuses on promoting compliance with the “ABCS” of heart disease prevention. I want you to benefit from this national effort, and I’m going to tell you how.
A = Aspirin. If you’re at risk, talk to your doctor about taking a low-dose aspirin every day.
B = Blood Pressure. Get your blood pressure checked today. If it’s elevated, get medication and TAKE IT faithfully. All of us should also work on reducing our sodium intake.
C = Cholesterol. Get your cholesterol checked. If it’s elevated, take the proper medication faithfully.
S = Smoking. Stop Smoking! Today!
You may have heard all this before, so the time has come to do something about it. Million Hearts is a great reminder to take action now. Visit millionhearts.hhs.gov, find it on Facebook at Millionhearts or follow the campaign on Twitter at @millionheartsus.
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Dr. Reed Tuckson
A graduate of Howard University, Georgetown University School of Medicine, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s General Internal Medicine Residency and Fellowship Programs, Dr. Tuckson is currently Executive Vice President and Chief of Medical Affairs at UnitedHealth Group where he is responsible for working with all of the Company’s business units to improve the quality and efficiency of health services.
Formerly, Dr. Tuckson served as Senior Vice President, Professional Standards, for the American Medical Association (AMA). He is former President of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles; has served as Senior Vice President for Programs of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation; and is a former Commissioner of Public Health for the District of Columbia.
Dr. Tuckson is an active member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and served as the Chairperson of its Quality Chasm Summit Committee and a member on their Committee on the Consequences of the Uninsured. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society. Additionally, he recently served as a Commissioner, Certification Commission on Health Information Technology (CCHIT); and is currently a member of the Performance Measurement Workgroup, Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance (AQA); and the Quality Workgroup, American Health Information Community (AHIC).
Dr. Tuckson has also held other federal appointments, including cabinet level advisory committees on health reform, infant mortality, children's health, violence, and radiation testing.