The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Black Health

There are currently seven major diseases that affect black people at a higher rate than white people. AIDS, asthma, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, sickle cell anemia and stroke have claimed the lives of more blacks than any other ethnic group in America.

While numbers for 2002 are not yet available, the numbers through the years have seen an alarming increase among each disease and currently show that each age group of blacks suffer from all diseases, but at different rates depending on lifestyle, activity and eating habits.

Sickle Cell Anemia

Sickle Cell Anemia is an inherited red blood cell disorder that causes the cells to become hard, sticky and shaped like sickles, which are tools used to cut wheat. When the hard, pointed cells go through the blood tube, they clog the flow and break apart.

SCA is abnormal hemoglobin, which is transmitted through the parent. If both parents have the trait, the child will be born with it and carry it for life.

This is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting about 72,000 Americans or 1 in 500 African Americans. SCA is characterized by episodes of pain, chronic hemolytic anemia and severe infections, usually beginning in early childhood.

Junior Neenah Barefield from Georgetown has a mild case of SCA that leaves her feeling tired and keeps her away from regular activities often. Her last episode, which occurred Dec. 31, left her bed-ridden for two days.

"I slept literally for 47 hours. I felt like I couldn't get oxygen and someone just knocked me out," Barefield said.

Barefield stressed that as long as people take care of themselves and don't do things that they are not supposed to do -like drinking or over-working - they will have a better chance of lowering their number of episodes.

AIDS

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, known as AIDS, was first reported in the United States in 1981, and since then has become a major epidemic. AIDS is caused by HIV, which kills cells of the immune system, and eventually destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers.

As many as 900,000 Americans have been infected with HIV and it is the leading killer among black males. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of AIDS is six times higher in black people than among white people.

Once someone has acquired the disease, they are infected for life. There are drugs to help slow the spread of HIV, but do not prevent transmission.

There are several drugs that have been approved, but many of them have side effects, resulting in a greater number of medications to be taken.

The best way to be safe and not acquire the disease is to use male latex condoms and not engage in risky behavior such as sharing needles or having unprotected sex.

Asthma

Asthma is a growing concern in inner city black populations. It is a chronic lung disease characterized by episodes of airflow restriction.

Symptoms of an asthma attack include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. Asthma occurs in people who are predisposed to develop the condition because of genetic and environmental factors that determine susceptibility.

There are several causes that will initiate or worsen an asthma attack, including viral respiratory infections, exercise, and exposure to allergens or to airway irritants such as cigarette smoke and some environmental pollutants.

Ann Bambirck, a registered nurse at the Southern Illinois Allergy and Asthma Center, said the age group of asthma sufferers is evenly spread out, with patients as young as six to eight months.

"We see more adults, but they are obviously not the only ones who suffer from asthma," Bambirck said. "We even get people who may not get it until their 30s or 40s."

Bambirck said that a lot of times asthma is triggered by allergies and if people find out early what they are allergic to, they can avoid asthma.

Coronary Heart Disease

When enough blood is not supplied to the heart or the coronary, arteries become narrowed or clogged, resulting in coronary heart disease.

An extreme circumstance would be the blood supply being cut off completely, resulting in a heart attack.

CHD is caused by a thickening of the inside walls of the coronary arteries. This thickening narrows the space the blood can flow through, decreasing and sometimes completely cutting off the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the heart.

Besides high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, obesity and physical inactivity are also contributors to CHD.

Simply exercising regularly and not smoking can easily help control the risk factors for CHD.

A physician at Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants LTD said they see more men than women, usually 40 years old and up, but it can occur in people as early as 20.

"Usually they don't have symptoms, so they don't know they have it," the physician said. "The symptoms will usually show up when they are 30, so they have been living with it, not knowing."

Hypertension

Blacks are at higher risk than any other ethnic group of suffering from high blood pressure. This tends to be more common, happens at an earlier age, and is more severe for many black people, with the second highest being the Latino population.

Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against blood vessels. The two types of pressure are systolic and diastolic. Systolic pressure is when the heart contracts and pumps blood and pressure at its greatest rate. The diastolic pressure is when the heart rests between beats and the blood pressure falls. Blood pressure is always given as numbers, with the systolic number above the diastolic pressure.

Normal blood pressure is 120/80. If the blood pressure is extremely high, the heart has to work harder, which can lead to stroke, heart attack, kidney problems or death.

Populations that are most likely to develop hypertension include blacks, persons with a high normal blood pressure, those with a family history of hypertension and individuals with one or more lifestyle factors that contribute to age-related increases in blood pressure.

Lifestyle factors that contribute to hypertension include a high sodium chloride intake, excessive consumption of calories, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol consumption, and potassium intake deficiency.

Diabetes

More than 30 million Americans face the threat of diabetes, and according to the CDC, every year thousands more are diagnosed and treated for the disease.

For every white person that gets diabetes, 1.6 black people get it. One in six black women has diabetes and as the age increases, the numbers lower to one in four.

There are two types of diabetes, Type 2 and Type 1. Type 2 usually affects people over 40, and Type 1 usually develops before the age of 20.

Researchers have suggested that black people and African immigrants to America have an inherited gene called the "thrifty gene" from their ancestors.

This gene was believed to have enabled Africans, during "feast and famine" cycles, to use food energy more efficiently when food was scarce. Today the thrifty gene that was developed for survival is now believed to make weight control more difficult. This genetic predisposition, along with impaired glucose tolerance, often occurs together with the genetic tendency toward high blood pressure.

Stroke

A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly interrupted or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the spaces surrounding brain cells. In the same way a person who has a loss of blood flow to the heart suffers a heart attack, a person with a loss of blood flow to the brain or sudden bleeding in the brain is said to be having a "brain attack."

When the brain cells are damaged by sudden bleeding around the brain, or no longer receive oxygen or nutrients, they die. These damaged cells make up the ischemic penumbra and can linger for hours in a numbing state.

Symptoms of a stroke are easy to spot and include sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body, sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding speech, sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes, sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination, or sudden severe headache with no known cause.

Most symptoms appear suddenly, sometimes more than one at a time, which makes it easier to distinguished from other causes of dizziness or headache.

Information about all diseases was compiled from the American Heart Association web site, the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America and www.blackhealthcare.com.

Reporter Samantha Robinson can be reached at

srobinson@dailyegyptian.com