October is Health Literacy Month and a medical professional is educating Pennsylvanians about heart inflammation, a condition which can lead to serious cardiac events if left untreated.
In 2021, the age-adjusted death rate of heart disease was 180 per 100,000 Pennsylvania residents.
Dr. Philip Nimoityn, clinical assistant professor of medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College and Cardiology Consultants of Philadelphia, said recent medical research has uncovered new preventive measures and treatments for heart attacks, the leading cause of death in the U.S. He added within the past year, a new drug has become available to directly target inflammation in the heart and can significantly decrease risk.
“This drug, which is low-dose Colchicine, which is marketed under the name of Lodoco, has been shown in individuals with either coronary artery disease or multiple risk factors for coronary artery disease to be able to decrease heart attack, stroke, cardiovascular death,” Nimoityn outlined.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three primary risk factors for heart disease are hypertension, elevated cholesterol and smoking, with nearly half of Americans having at least one of the conditions.
Nimoityn emphasized the importance of maintaining heart health, including avoiding gut problems through a healthy diet. He added gut microbiome, a population of microorganisms, live in your gut.
“It’s estimated there are 10 trillion organisms in your gut, and they produce 10% of your body’s chemicals, which are called metabolites,” Nimoityn explained. “The type of bacteria that grow are influenced by what you eat. So, for instance, if you were to eat beef, that would increase the growth of bacteria which release inflammatory metabolites.”
He added the new treatment has seen a substantial 31% increase in the demand for coronary revascularization procedures such as stenting and bypass surgery. He recommended Pennsylvania start screening for heart disease early in life, especially if you have a family history.
get more stories like this via email
Medical professionals and advocates in the Latino community are using National Hispanic Heritage Month to encourage residents to prepare for the upcoming cold and flu season.
The nonprofit Latinx Voces has teamed up with the drug company Pfizer to dispel myths about vaccines.
Paulina Sosa, founder of the group, said a recent webinar focused on the importance of immunizations and now they are taking the message out into the community.
“Explain what is a vaccine, what makes it safe, and how do you know if you can trust it,” Sosa outlined. “Hopefully walking people through this will really help educate and inform them, but also helps remove that hesitancy or the fear they have around this vaccine.”
According to the latest information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Hispanic adults were 30% less likely to have received a flu vaccine than non-Hispanic whites. A link to the webinar is available at LatinxTaskForce.org.
Sosa pointed out a lot of fear about vaccinations within the Latino community is fueled by misinformation.
“A lot of people still believe that they’re going to get the chip, or it’s gonna affect fertility,” Sosa explained. We still are finding that there is a lot of misinformation that’s really creating this consistent fear and hesitancy around all kinds of vaccines.”
She said as we enter the respiratory season, they want to ensure residents have correct information about COVID, flu, pneumonia and RSV vaccines.
“We want to give you the information but we also want to remove the barriers to access,” Sosa emphasized. “How can we do that? Partnering with health fairs, partnering with clinics, making sure that information is in Spanish and that you feel safe to ask your questions.”
get more stories like this via email
It’s been one year since the largest health care strike in U.S. history, and union members say they’ve seen changes since their 2023 victory.
More than 85,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente in Oregon and four other states conducted a three-day strike in October 2023, and won a 21% wage increase over four years.
Keven Dardon is a patient access representative with a Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas, and was a member of the negotiation team with Service Employees International Union Local 49 during the strike.
He said there were risks involved in the strike.
“This wasn’t an easy decision for us,” said Dardon. “It took a lot of time, planning and speaking – to not just our peers but our families – regarding what striking would mean to us and how, you know, it would affect our stance and our income to be able to do that for those three days.”
Dardon said health care workers wanted to address the demand from the growing Portland region. SEIU Local 49 says members won the largest wage package in 25 years.
Dardon said the biggest concerns for workers were understaffing and turnover. He said they’ve teamed up with management to analyze the staffing needs of departments in their hospitals.
Dardon said more staff benefits patients.
“Ultimately, this means more availability to see providers,” said Dardon, “and overall it’s a huge victory for us because we’re able to start getting the manpower that we need, to be able to meet the demand of the city and be able to really see our patients in a timely manner.”
The Kaiser strike was among many strikes that took place last year, and have continued this year – such as with the recent longshoreman’s strike. Dardon said the actions have been empowering to see.
“Companies are seeing record profits and we’re the backbones of the company, right?” said Dardon. “We’re the ones that show up every day on time, we do the work, we see the patients or we see the customers – and we deserve to be rewarded for the hard work and for the profits that these companies are earning.”
Disclosure: SEIU Local 49 contributes to our fund for reporting on Livable Wages/Working Families, Social Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
click here.
get more stories like this via email
Experts warn health insurance premiums could rise an average of $1,000 a year for more than 2 million Californians who buy coverage on the individual marketplace, unless Congress extends subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act.
The nonprofit Health Access California has federal data by congressional district.
Rachel Linn Gish, director of communications for the advocacy group, said for example, 140,000 people in the Central Valley alone benefit from the subsidies.
“As Congress is considering taking action to make these federal subsidies permanent, we want to make sure that Congress members know just how their constituents are going to be impacted by these health care decisions that they’re about to make,” Gish emphasized.
Linn Gish wants Congress to take up the issue soon because CoveredCA is working now to set rates for 2026. At a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, criticized the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed without a single Republican vote and said permanently extending the subsidies would contribute $325 billion to the federal deficit over 10 years.
A recent report from the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-Los Angeles found enhanced tax credits through the Inflation Reduction Act save Californians $1.7 billion per year.
Gish pointed out the federal dollars have allowed state funds to flow toward programs to zero out deductibles and eliminate copays on many CoveredCA plans.
“If we lose the federal support for the premium help, then we may need to shift state dollars to backfill that,” Gish cautioned. “Therefore consumers could also see spikes in their deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for health care.”
A recent study from UC Berkeley and UCLA predicted an additional 69,000 Californians could become uninsured due to increased premium costs if federal subsidies are allowed to expire next year.
Disclosure: Health Access contributes to our fund for reporting on Health Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
click here.
get more stories like this via email
