Category: Health and Wellness - Part 9

Health disparities in Colorado huge, persistent, complex

By Kevin Vaughan I-News Network Lucero Barrios is Latina and a new mother circumstances that place her squarely in a group of people affected by a shocking reality in Colorado: A Hispanic baby born in this state is 63 percent more likely than a white baby to die in the first year of life. And Latinos arent alone the disparity is even more stark for Colorados African Americans, who experience an infant mortality rate three times that of Caucasians. The gap in theinfant mortality rate is just one measurement by which the states largest groups of ethnic and racial minorities…

Kennedy launches health battle against pot

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Citing his own history of addiction and asserting that todays marijuana is not your Woodstock weed, Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, launched a new national public health battle against pot legalization in Denver Thursday. The new group is called Project SAM, Smart Approaches to Marijuana. The founders are trying to appeal to both the left and the right with Kennedy attracting progressives and former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum appealing to conservatives and libertarians. The group aims to disseminate the latest research on health impacts of marijuana, to speed access and…

Frankenchicken fooling foodies

By Mary Winter Many Americans are turning to new meat-like foods made of soy and other plant proteins but with the approximate taste and appearance of traditional chicken, burgers, bacon and ground beef as alternatives to animal flesh. Some do it for environmental and ethical reasons as a protest against factory-farm methods commonly used to raise poultry and livestock, which they consider inhumane. But many are also incorporating the so-called meat analogues into their diets for health reasons. Soy alternatives generally are free of fat and cholesterol or contain low levels of them. Soy products also can provide essential fatty…

Red meat linked to cancer, heart disease, shortened lifespans

By Mary Winter Few foods say good times like a sizzling 16-ounce rib eye. For generations, Americans have celebrated milestones, successes and summer get-togethers with a juicy slab of fat-marbled beef, and for most of us, a trip to a pricey steak house is still an occasion. If that occasional steak were the only red meat we ate, many health experts would be thrilled. But today, Americans consume an average of 74 pounds of red meat (beef, veal, pork and lamb) per person each year much of it in the form of fast-food burgers and processed meats such as bacon,…

‘Design thinking’ offers new approach to tackling childhood obesity

By Diane Carman For organizations and individuals working to address the epidemic of childhood obesity, the biggest challenge is to make it fun. Or at the very least to avoid making it humiliating, frustrating, boring and punitive. We need to bring back creativity. Creativity is crucial to solving the obesity crisis, said Chris Waugh, director and co-founder of the design innovation consultancy IDEO. Waugh spoke Friday at an event called Symposium Unplugged, sponsored by the Colorado Health Foundation. Waugh presented 10 steps to designing effective approaches to solving problems and offered vivid examples of how they have been employed in…

Opinion: Just how healthy is Colorado?

Dr. Bill Mandell Colorado ranks among the best in nation when it comes to overall health. However the state has some opportunities for improvement, according to the 23nd annual Americas Health Rankings from United Health Foundation. The report, the longest running of its kind in the country, placed Colorado No. 11 among all 50 states for overall heath, up three spots from last year. Heres a snapshot of how Colorado fared: Colorados Strengths Low prevalence of diabetes and obesity: Colorado has the lowest obesity rate in the U.S. at 20.7 percent of the population with 805,000 obese adults. Colorado also…

Opinion: Pediatric dental health crucial to long-term success

By Sarah Mapes Colorado ranks 38th in the country for kids who see a dentist regularly. One quarter of all Coloradans are children and only about 3 percent of these 1.2 million children have seen a dentist by age 1. Tooth decay is five times more common than asthma and four times more common than early childhood obesity. Research shows that good oral health is critical to a childs long-term success in life. Unfortunately, the data are not promising for Colorado kids. Tooth decay is almost entirely preventable, and yet around half of our Kindergartners suffer from it. Oral health…

Access to dental care declining in Colorado

By Diane Carman The crisis in access to dental health care in Colorado is growing more severe even as the effort by the state Department of Health and Environment this year continues to highlight improved oral care as one of its 10 winnable battles. A new analysis released Monday by The Colorado Trust found that the number of Coloradans without dental insurance grew 17 percent between 2009 and 2011, and that even people with dental insurance failed to receive care due to cost or a lack of available dental providers. Coloradans need to speak up for the care they need…

Opinion: Colorado must expand access to dental care

By Sara Schmitt It is becoming more difficult for Coloradans to get oral health care. Last Thursday, legislators who attended the Hot Issues in Health Care conference in Colorado Springs, sponsored by the Colorado Health Institute, got a sneak preview of new Colorado Trust report on oral health. Based on findings from the 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey (CHAS), the report, A Growing Problem: Oral Health Coverage, Access and Usage in Colorado, said there are now more than 2 million Coloradans without dental insurance an increase of 17 percent since the 2009 baseline survey. The survey also found that having…

Opinion: Informed patients essential for better health care

By Dr. David Downs Medical science has advanced at a remarkable pace. We can now replace worn joints and diseased heart valves, open clogged arteries and identify cancers before they become untreatable. We can see into the center of the body with remarkable detail using CT scanners, MRI machines and other technologies all without pain or discomfort. These and many other modern medical miracles are generally viewed as a great benefit to the health of those for whom they are available. And in the American spirit of newer, better and faster, we have taken to these services avidly. It is…