Get to Goal
High blood pressure control program seeks enrollees
The American Heart Association (AHA) is launching its new Get to Goal hypertension management program and is accepting applications from L.A. County-based potential participants until March 17.
The idea behind the campaign is to promote a healthy lifestyle, including strategies to reduce hypertension among African American and Latino adults.
The four-month program includes interactive health education classes and access to a health mentor who will help set goals, create action plans and monitor progress.
The health education classes offered by the Network for a Healthy California (Network) will cover the health risks of excessive sodium consumption, portion control, reading food labels, the health benefits of physical activity and disease prevention.
“The Network offers tools and resources to transform communities to make healthy eating and daily physical activity a way of life with the goal of preventing obesity and other serious health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke,” said Ebone Fuller, African American campaign coordinator, Network for a Healthy California.
“More than 76 million Americans have high blood pressure,” said Alice Benjamin, RN, clinical nurse specialist and American Heart Association spokesperson. “Of those, 15 million are unaware of their condition. Of the 61 million who know they have high blood pressure, 18 million are untreated. Of the 43 million who are getting treatment, 21 million remain with uncontrolled hypertension. This is a health concern of epidemic proportions that we are trying to address through Get to Goal.”
In California, Los Angeles County has the highest percentage of African Americans diagnosed with high blood pressure. African Americans with high blood pressure have an 80 percent chance of dying from stroke and 20 percent chance of developing heart disease.
Among Latinos, an estimated 25 percent of the population in Los Angeles has high blood pressure.
To participate in Get to Goal Los Angeles, visit www.heart360.org/GettoGoalLA for the African American program and www.heart360.org/LosAngeles for the Latino program.
The American Heart Association’s mission is building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Its goal by 2020 is to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent while reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20 percent. Get to Goal aims to address one of the major risk factors for these diseases: high blood pressure.
This is the beginning of a series of articles about street gangs in our nation. Gone are the days back in the 1960s and before when gangs were social organizations and were geographically linked. Beginning in the 1970s, these street gangs evolved into criminal organizations. They are the generators of murder, drugs, robbery, etc. No longer are they cool or cute. They are pure savages craving fast money and a fast lifestyle. This week let’s take a look at Detroit.
One of the earliest gangs was the Errol Flynns. They took the name from the Caucasian movie star.
A new community plan for the West Adams, Baldwin Hills, Leimert Park and Hyde Park communities is proposing to roll back current limits on the number of stand-alone fast food restaurants in Council District 10 for up to 20 years.
In 2008, the City Council passed an ordinance restricting new fast food restaurants from being constructed within 0.5 miles of an existing fast food restaurant.
Bill Gates is putting out a call to inventors, but he’s not looking for software, or the latest high-tech gadget. This time he’s in search of a better condom.
On its Grand Challenges website, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is offering a $100,000 startup grant to the person who designs “the next generation condom that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure” and promotes “regular use.”
Your child has caught some bug that’s going around.
He has a terminal case of The Gimmes, and he’s not getting any better. It’s “Gimme that” and “Buy me this” all day long. It’s Gimme Gimme Gimme, usually accompanied by whining, pleading, and a maddening inability to understand the word “no.”
The Jenesse Center Inc. is the oldest domestic violence intervention program in South Central Los Angeles. Founded in 1980 by five African American women who survived years of domestic violence, its mission is to provide victims of household beatings and mistreatment with a comprehensive, centralized support base to assist them in addressing their immediate crisis and change the patterns of their lives.
