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The 10 biggest killers of Blacks
Ebony, March, 1998 by Kelly Starling
SUPPOSE the entire population of Birmingham, Ala., vanished. Just imagine that in one instant everyone who lived there was suddenly gone. By this time next year, that's about the number of African-Americans (more than a quarter million people) who will die from the 10 biggest killers of Blacks of all ages(*)--heart disease, cancer, stroke, AIDS, accidents, homicide, diabetes, pneumonia and influenza, chronic pulmonary diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and infant mortality.
Fortunately, experts say, with regular checkups and simple changes in lifestyle and nutrition, many of these health threats can be avoided.
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The No. 1 medical threat to African-Americans is heart disease. A silent killer, this illness primarily strikes when fat collects in the coronary arteries and reduces the flow of blood to the heart. Obesity and high blood pressure make Blacks waiting victims for not only heart problems but also cancer and stroke, a condition caused when blood vessels rupture in the brain or blood clots prevent oxygen from reaching the brain. These top three diseases are the same leading health threats that plague Whites. But, doctors say, by the time most Blacks are diagnosed with these illnesses, they are more likely to die.
The top killers vary by gender and by age. For young African-Americans (ages 25-44), the leading threat remains AIDS, a disease this group contracts four times more often than Whites, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. And for Blacks in their late teens to early 20s, the biggest danger is homicide-often at the hands of another African-American.
Although research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta indicates that America's health has improved overall, the health status of Blacks is frightening, even with recent advancements. The death rate of middle-aged to elderly African-American women from coronary heart disease is more than 70 percent than that for White women. Blacks have almost twice as many strokes as Whites. And according to the American Cancer Society, Black men have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world.
The situation doesn't look any better when you consider the other health threats in the Top 10 affecting Blacks of all ages--AIDS, accidents, homicide, diabetes, pneumonia and influenza, chronic pulmonary diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and infant mortality. New risks unfold each day. A growing threat to young African-Americans, officials say, is suicide. That act ranks among the CDCs Top 10 major killers of Blacks from their teens to mid-40s.
Wilma Johnson, the CDCs acting associate director for minority health, says some African-Americans once thought that suicide was a "White thing." But a sense of hopelessness among urban youth has her concerned that the suicide woes have just begun.
"When we see a new problem on the front, we know it will probably be worse for our people," says Johnson. "If White people cough, Black people develop pneumonia."
These statistics are even more sobering when you compare the life expectancy of Blacks to Whites. Even though the average African-American is living to an all-time high of age 70, that's still about six years fewer than Whites. And African-Americans who live past 70 often face more disabling conditions in their golden years, including amputation, paralysis and glaucoma. Consider the painful reality of Mother Joe's fight with diabetes in the movie Soul Food. Her diet, the movie implies, may have cost her a leg, and ultimately her life.
Chicago internist Dr. Fred Daniels believes that ignorance about what's needed to maintain health is one of the greatest barriers to preventing major diseases in Blacks. "Most patients still feel that to go to the doctor, something has to be wrong," says Dr. Daniels, whose caseload is 99 percent Black. "They [patients] come to me when they have chest pains, blood in the stool, weight loss. But I want to see them when they're healthy. I try to get patients to see that once health is lost, it can never be regained."
The veteran doctor recalls a female patient who had high blood pressure. She stopped smoking, but despite his warnings, skipped a few weeks of taking her medicine. On a weekend when her family was out of town, the woman had a stroke and ended up crumpled on the kitchen floor's linoleum, alone and helpless for 48 hours. Now at just 60 years old, the left side of her body is completely paralyzed.
"That's unnecessary, 11 says Dr. Daniels, who teaches interns and residents at St. Joseph's Hospital in Chicago. "It hurts because you hear these stories and you know that it's preventable.... Patients only listen to about 30 percent to 40 percent of what you ask them to do."
Like Dr. Daniels, other experts suggest that regular physical examinations and honest communication with a doctor could reduce the number of deaths by diseases Blacks face. Some physicians say they are astounded to find their patients still believe myths such as diabetes is caused by eating too many sweets or that you can feel when your blood pressure is rising.
