Native Health

Perhaps you may have gathered that I have a love for all my Native brothers and sisters and the utmost respect. I want to reach out and share health topics that will help teach not only the ways of Western medicine, but teach in such a way that even great healers within any clan or tribe can speak with even greater truth.

I found this site that has many links on health care for The Pima Indians: Pathfinders for Health.
http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/pima/

I focus very often on diabetes because the Western diet and lifestyle has caused huge imbalances within the body. Diabetes results from obesity, poor nutrition, and causes more health complications than any other illness that I can think of right now.

Diabetes leads to vision loss with diabetic retinopathy and circulatory problems that result in blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes. Beyond these things diabetes is the number cause of renal (kidney) failure and that leads to dialysis. Renal failure causes problems with high blood pressure and nutrition needs. Decreased circulation and diabetic neuropathy leads to poor peripheral circulation and limb loss through amputations.

The greater the knowledge any people can possess then the greater their control over their own health and destiny. Knowledge, it is said, is power. But power without wisdom is useless. We must do more than "know", we must be wise.

Chey

Diabetes and Native Americans

http://vltakaliseji.tripod.com/Vtlakaliseji/id2.html

among Native Americans. Complications from diabetes are major causes of death and health problems in most Native American populations. This information on Native Americans and Diabetes is taken from the American Diabetes Association.

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease that affects the body's ability to produce or respond to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose (blood sugar) to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. Diabetes falls into two main categories: type 1, which usually occurs during childhood or adolescence, and type 2, the most common form of the disease, usually occurring after age 45.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that has no cure.

How Does it Affect Native Americans?

Prevalence :

Prevalence of type 2 diabetes among Native Americans in the United States is 12.2% for those over 19 years of age. One tribe in Arizona has the highest rate of diabetes in the world. About 50% of the tribe between the ages of 30 and 64 have diabetes.

Today, diabetes has reached epidemic proportions

Of equal concern is the fact that type 2, or adult-onset diabetes, is increasingly being discovered in Native American youth.

Diabetes Rapidly Increasing Among Native Americans, Alaskans

Reported in the December, 2000 issue of Diabetes Care: Diabetes has been growing in prevalence among Native Americans and Alaskan Natives,according to a recent study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found a nearly 30 percent increase in diabetes diagnoses among these populations between 1990 and 1997. During this time period prevalence among women was higher than among men, but the rate of increase was higher among men than women (37 percent v. 25 percent). The increase in prevalence was highest in Alaska, where it rose 76 percent during the 1990s, and lowest in the Northern Plains region of the United States, where it rose by 16 percent during this time period.

Obesity and Native Americans:

According to the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the "thrifty gene" theory proposes that African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans inherited a gene from their ancestors which enabled them to use food more efficiently during "feast and famine" cycles. Today there are fewer such cycles; this causes certain populations to be more susceptible to obesity and to developing type 2 diabetes.

Native Americans and Diabetic Complications:

The serious complications of diabetes are increasing in frequency among Native Americans. Of major concern are increasing rates of kidney failure, amputations and blindness.

Ten to twenty-one percent of all people with diabetes develop kidney disease. In 1995, 27,900 people initiated treatment for end stage renal disease (kidney failure) because of diabetes. Among people with diabetes, the rate of diabetic end stage renal disease is six times higher among Native Americans.

Diabetes is the most frequent cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputations. The risk of a leg amputation is 15 to 40 times greater for a person with diabetes. Each year 54,000 people lose their foot or leg to diabetes. Amputation rates among Native Americans are 3-4 times higher than the general population.

Diabetic retinopathy is a term used for all abnormalities of the small blood vessels of the retina caused by diabetes, such as weakening of blood vessel walls or leakage from blood vessels. Diabetic retinopathy occurs in 18% of Pima Indians and 24.4% of Oklahoma Indians.

What is Needed?

In ideal circumstances, Native Americans with diabetes will have their disease under good control and be monitored frequently by a health care team knowledgeable in the care of diabetes.

Patient education is critical. People with diabetes can reduce their risk for complications if they are educated about their disease, learn and practice the skills necessary to better control their blood glucose levels, and receive regular checkups from their health care team.

People with diabetes, with the help of their health care providers, should set goals for better control of blood glucose levels, as close to the normal range as is possible for them. Health care team education is vital. Because people with diabetes have a multi-system chronic disease, they are best monitored and managed by highly skilled health care professionals trained with the latest information on diabetes to help ensure early detection and appropriate treatment of the serious complications of the disease. A team approach to treating and monitoring this disease serves the best interests of the patient.

Knowledge is power. Learn what you can, talk to your health care provider and use what you learn to help yourself beat this horrible disease.

It has been a long time

It is sometimes sad to see our soldiers die and be wounded so very young.

Senate backs overhaul bill that 'will save lives'

I received this in my nursing news from the ANA so I wanted to share it.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/352846_healthcare27.html

Senate backs overhaul bill that 'will save lives'

Last updated February 26, 2008 11:02 p.m. PT

By JUDY HOLLAND
P-I WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- In the first major overhaul of the Indian Health Service in more than a decade, Congress moved Tuesday toward bolstering health-care screening, illness prevention and mental health benefits for Native Americans.

The Senate-approved legislation would infuse $35 billion over 10 years into the Indian Health Service to improve tribal health care for 1.8 million American Indians and Alaska Natives on reservations. The lawmakers voted 83-10 in favor of the legislation.

In recent years, the Indian Health Service has been funded at about $3 billion annually.

The bill would bolster mental health programs and patient screening for cancer and diabetes, expand disease prevention programs and recruit nurses and doctors to serve American Indian populations. It would also modernize and build health clinics and increase tribal access to Medicare and Medicaid.

The House is expected to take up the measure later this year.

Seattle is home to the largest urban Indian health clinic in the country.

The Seattle Indian Health Board on 12th Avenue South provides a full range of medical, dental, lab and pharmacy services along with programs aimed at drug and alcohol abuse to about 7,000 Native Americans each year.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., hailed passage of the measure as "a major step, something that the Indian tribes have really been pushing."

"It updates the law so they can do the kind of preventive care the rest of America has," Murray said.

The Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which was last reauthorized in 1992 and expired in 2000, will focus on preventive care that can stave off illnesses prevalent on reservations such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, Murray said.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said the federal government has a responsibility to Native Americans after "we took their land, put them on reservations, signed treaties and made promises" we haven't kept, especially with regard to health care.

"This will save lives," Dorgan said.

Under treaties signed by the U.S. government and Indian tribes, the federal government is obligated to provide health care for Native Americans.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said improved health care for Indian tribes is long overdue.

"It's been a neglected part of our health care delivery system," Cantwell said.

The Senate also approved on a vote of 56-38 an amendment by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., that would grant the Indian Health Service the authority to more evenly distribute funding for construction of its health facilities.

Smith complained about an "archaic formula" under which most of the funding for construction and modernization of tribal clinics goes to fewer than 10 states.

He said states that are not receiving construction dollars for Native American health facilities include New York, Texas, Michigan, California and Washington.

Cantwell said the Smith measure could benefit Northwestern tribes by steering more federal construction dollars their way.

"It's a positive step for a more adequate distribution of resources to the Northwest," Cantwell said.

The Senate also amended the bill to exclude most abortions at Indian health clinics and ban spending on programs that discourage gun ownership.

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, applauded the anti-abortion provision, saying the majority of the Senate "has now shown they agree with most Americans that government funding of abortion is morally wrong."

A similar House bill is expected to come up in the Energy and Commerce Committee in the next few weeks, said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., who heads the health subcommittee of the panel. It must clear the House Ways and Means panel before heading to the floor.

Pallone predicts the measure "will move fairly quickly" to approval in the House.

Pallone, vice chair of the Native American Caucus, said health care for American Indians is "far inferior to that of the average American."

He said hospitals and clinics on reservations are in disrepair and have difficulty finding specialized physicians, dentists and podiatrists.

"There is a huge disparity between the health care they get and that of average Americans," Pallone said.

$35 BILLION

Amount over 10 years that the Senate-approved legislation would put into the Indian Health Service to boost tribal care.

1.8 MILLION

Number of American Indians and Alaska Natives on reservations who would be affected by the legislation. HEALTH CARE

BY THE NUMBERS

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., cited these grim health-care statistics for Native Americans:

The infant mortality rate is 150 percent greater for Native Americans than Caucasians.

Native Americans are 2.6 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes.

Life expectancy for Native Americans is nearly six years less than the rest of the U.S. population.

Suicide rate for Native Americans is 2.5 times higher than the national average.

Health care expenditures for Native Americans are less than half of what America spends for federal prisoners.

© 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer