New NMA president takes on tough issues
WASHINGTON – Leonard Weather Jr., M.D., R.Ph. has been named the 111th president of the D.C.-based National Medical Association, an organization representing more than 30,000 Black physicians around the nation and their patients.
 Taking office in the era of health care reform, Weather, a gynecologist who practices in both New Orleans and Shreveport, La., has three key areas of focus in addition to the traditional role of the NMA president of eliminating health care disparities.
Minority women’s health, attention to the effects of the environment on minority health, and relief for African-American physicians who are struggling economically will be additional issues that he will tackle.
“I’m very concerned about health care disparities, and one of the issues that is pervasive, of course, is health care reform. The health care legislation does have a major effect on us,” Dr. Weather said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly better than what we had.”
Weather knows that these ongoing problems will not be solved quickly, but strategically over time. He says that educating physicians and patients is the solution as well as cooperation with schools, churches and other community organizations.
The issue of women’s health is actually a family health issue because of the role of women in their families.
“If you have a healthy woman or mother, then we’re assured to more likely have a healthy family,” Weathers says. “If we look at the mothers, in many instances a low birth-weight child or if the child’s healthy — that may be a reflection on what the mother eats or doesn’t eat.”
Diet is an important part of women’s health, he said, because obesity is too prevalent, and obesity leads to many other health issues.
“We have to change this epidemic. It’s pervasive,” Weather says. “If you start looking at what’s involved if the woman is obese, it also links us to other illnesses — diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. The No. 1 killer in women is cardiovascular disease, and that many times is a reflection of the diet.”
People’s health often reflects their environments, he said.
Many neighborhoods are “food deserts” with too many foods and drinks saturated with sugars, and too few healthy fruit, vegetable and milk options. In addition, smoking and mental health are also problems that should be addressed.
“Endometriosis and infertility are linked to obesity,” Weather said. “People need to know that a high BMI is not acceptable for African-American women, and we need to educate them more about what BMI means and what being obese means. Many African-American women kind of feel that in lieu of being obese, ‘I’m just overweight.’
“If a better diet was pushed and promoted to the community, to the churches and through various schools, I think we’d have a tremendous advantage in terms of decreasing obesity, and also decreasing cardiovascular disease, hypertension and premature death.”
As a resident of Louisiana, with its many oil refineries, the devastation of hurricane Katrina, and the recent oil spill, environmental issues are also a hot button for Weather. Research shows that millions of people live in houses and attend schools short distances from toxic waste sties and refineries. Respiratory ailments, endometriosis and bleeding problems are on the increase among African-Americans, he said.
“The numbers of children with respiratory problems and inhalers are up. They’ve never been like this before,” Dr. Weather said. “It’s an amazing thing, and I think clearly we need to be cognizant of this. The Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry has a map that you can use to identify where all the various toxic waste sites are located. I truly feel that every state society of NMA should know what’s in their communities.
“So looking at environmental health, we clearly need to look at the causes of cancer, and even look at attention deficit problems, because that’s been linked.”
The third major issue Dr. Weather hopes to address is the problems facing African-American physicians. Even though 12 percent of the U.S. population is African-American, only 4 percent of physicians are African-American. More support of medical programs at traditional schools for African-American physicians —
Morehouse College of Medicine, Howard University and Meharry Medical College — is needed.
“More money is put for research and technology and less money to those schools that actually favor or have a devoted interest in producing primary care physicians, which is really what we need,” Dr. Weather said, adding that with 32 million more people expected to have better access to care under health system reform, more primary care physicians are needed.
And when those physicians enter practice, they face great financial burdens, such as paying student loans, increasing malpractice insurance premiums and declining reimbursements for treating Medicare and Medicaid patients.
“We have to protect and inform our physicians about the various insults that are taking place,” Weather said. “The better that physicians are treated so they can sustain themselves, then the quality of care is enhanced.”
A driver for this change is the health system reform legislation approved by Congress.
“We have to look at the good parts of it, magnify it and accept it,” Dr. Weather said of the legislation. “The parts that are not acceptable — we have to try to eliminate those things.
“We have to improve on the law as it’s being implemented. This is what our task is with health care reform for the sake of our physicians, our patients and, of course, the communities. This is something we must do and shall do to fight for the underserved and our doctors.”
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Young, professional and dying –
Health threats to generation next
By Eboni Munm
NNPA Special Correspondent
This year’s annual National Urban League conference covered current issues concerning African Americans today. The “Young, Professional & Dying: Current Health Threats to Generation Next” workshop provided answers to daily stressors that young Black men and women face. Dr. Edward E. Cornwell, Surgeon-in-Chief at Howard University Hospital, was the moderator, as each panelist tackled current health threats.
Dr. Kalahn Taylor-Clark, research director at the Engleberg Center for Healthcare Reform, expressed one of her early stresses in graduate school. She remembered Caucasian males and females occupying her classrooms, while Taylor-Clark was the only Black woman.
“We tend to see fewer and fewer of ourselves when we get to high positions, which causes stress for African American women.” And because of this, Black college-educated women have the highest rate of infant mortality.
Taylor-Clark informed the workshop attendees that White college-educated women are not suffering from low-birth weight and pre-birth problems at the same rate as their Black counterparts. One reason for pre-natal problems is “allostatic load.” This simply means that stressors strain and take over functioning organs.
Taylor-Clark insisted that having kids after the age of 30, should be a concern for African-American women. “When you run your household, after being at work for nine hours a day, it is important that we take the time out to relax.”
Assistant deputy chief medical examiner, Dr. Roger Mitchell, informed attendees of the history of health disparity concerns for African-Americans. Between 1910-1940, the two leading causes of death were Tuberculosis and the Red Summer, which were riots that lynched innocent African-American men and women because of their race.
“One-hundred years later, for 21-40 year old African-Americans, the leading causes of death are homicide, accidents, and suicide,” said Mitchell. “Consuming drugs, overdosing, and partying excessively. But at what cost? Being in abusive relationships? But at what cost?”
Mitchell exclaimed that the costs are what is killing the African-American population. These are situations of life or death. “My request of you is to choose life," he said.
Dr. Pierre Vigilance, director of the DC Department of Health, called the three leading concerns affecting African-Americans, the three S’s: stress, sugar, and sex. Director of the National Center for HIV/ AIDS, STD and TB Prevention, Kevin A. Fenton, dealt with the sex concern. “one in 6 of Black men have a chance of being diagnosed with HIV. For black women, there is a 1 in 30 chance,” Fenton said.
“The stigma and fear that these diseases carry are killing us, because we sit back and do nothing. Young gay men are having unprotected sex and become infected, teenage girls have multiple sex partners, sexual abuse runs rampant, and church leaders don’t speak about these issues,” said Fenton.
Founder and president of BonnieGirl Productions, Bernita Perkins found an interesting reason for the increasing number of overweight women of color. Perkins created a workout DVD geared towards African-American women. During one particular year at the Essence Music Festival, a potential customer said, “I want to exercise but it’s going to mess up my hair!”
Another customer who was overweight came over to check out Perkins’ DVD. The customer’s boyfriend walked up to her and said, “Girl you don’t need this, I like you just the way you are.”
Perkins identified the two main concerns for women of color are the fear of losing their hairstyles and losing their shapes.
“But we need to understand the difference between healthy and obese,” said Perkins. “If in your world, size 20 is the smallest size, you don’t have another perspective, more importantly, a healthier perspective.”
Each panelist provided ways to live a healthier lifestyle to combat the stresses of everyday. Kevin A. Fenton insisted that a good workout, a great breakfast, and retiring to bed for six or seven hours of sleep, increases life span.
Also, learning to balance work and personal life correctly is also something that African-Americans can do. “The same sacrifices you make for your professional life, it is okay to make them to enjoy your personal life”, said Fenton.
Dr. Corey Herbert, president and CEO of Herbert Medical Consulting, insisted that our community stops “super-sizing meals and drinking sodas.” Herbert continued, “and also, quit watching CNN 24/7. When you see everyone else’s stress, even if it is on TV, you naturally begin to stress and worry.”
Herbert wants people of color to stop using food as emotion. “When Hurricane Katrina hit, people gained weight.
Divorce food from emotions and look for healthier options,” said Herbert.
Vigilance gave up his secret of relying on prayer and mediation. Vigilance noted, “No matter where you are, you can take time out to sit and pray. Even in board meetings, and trust me, sometimes you feel like praying then!”
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