Health

A study of life expectancy trends in the U.S. released Thursday has found that the gap between Black and white lifespans has nearly doubled over the last two decades, exacerbated by geographic and racial health disparities — and reversing decades of a slow but gradual narrowing of the gap.

From the top floor of 1010 Massachusetts Ave., where she heads the Boston Public Health Commission, Dr. Bisola Ojikutu is a long way from the South Side of Chicago, where she grew up surrounded by a distrust of the medical system.

Carissa Juarez knew she was a silent carrier of the sickle cell trait. But when her newborn daughter, Jalyssa Batista-Juarez, was diagnosed with the SS genotype of sickle cell, a severe form of the disease, Juarez’s relationship with the illness transformed.

Ebony Holmes, 40, attributed those pains in her stomach to something she ate. After all, she was 38 and in relatively good health. But the symptoms persisted and worsened.

It’s pretty safe to assume that one’s colon is not a typical topic of conversation at the dinner table. Nor generally at any other time, for that matter. Perhaps it should be.

Medicare’s open enrollment period, which extends from October 15 to December 7, allows participants to choose plans for the following year.

Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in this country, but the most deadly. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women. According to the National Cancer Institute, an estimated 237,740 new cases will be diagnosed in 2022 and over 130,000 deaths.

The first Monday in May is Melanoma Day. In all probability, most people of color completely ignored it. That’s understandable. Melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, is more common in Whites. But Black people do not escape the disease altogether. Actually, a rare form of melanoma is more prevalent in Blacks.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in this country exceeded only by heart disease. According to Cancer Facts & Figures 2021 published by the American Cancer Society, in 2021, there were an estimated 1.9 million new cancer cases and 608,570 deaths.

Billy Garrett, Jr. is just following in his grandfather’s footsteps. Bill Garrett was the first African American to play regularly on a Big Ten Conference varsity basketball team. Garrett, Jr., 26, shares his grandfather’s passion for basketball. He has played for the NBA G League as well as the New York Knicks. He’s now a shooting guard for the basketball league in Poland. Yet, Garrett has sickle cell disease.

It took a personal health scare to get Thaddeus Miles into running. His longtime job as director of safety for MassHousing brought plenty of stress. One day in 2010, after attending a funeral, Miles headed to the gym. While bench pressing, he suddenly felt he was about to pass out. When the EMTs arrived, his blood pressure was 220/180; at the hospital he learned he had an enlarged heart.