Health: Coverage Could Improve With Affordable Care Act Education - “Native health care consumers have no reason to panic,” said Roxane Spruce Bly, director of Healthcare Education and Outreach for the Native American Professional Parent Resources based in Albuquerque. “In general, I think there’s a lot of anxiety for consumers around the country because they need to enroll in coverage by March 31, 2014, to avoid a penalty or a fee.
Health: The Rape 'Epidemic' Doesn't Actually Exist - Bolstered by inflated statistics and alarmist depictions of campus culture, advocates have been successful in initiating policy changes designed to better protect victims of sexual violence. It is not clear that these policies have made campuses safer places for women, but they have certainly made them treacherous places for falsely accused men.
December 2013
Health: Harvard study says 70 percent of domestic violence is committed by women against men - The mainstream media seems to imply that men are the sole perpetrators of violence against women, but research proves otherwise. A recent study by Harvard Medical School conducted a survey of 11,000 men and women and found that 50% of the violence was reciprocal. Both men and women also took responsibility for being equally violent in the heat of passion. The Harvard study found that when violence was one-sided, meaning unprovoked, both men and the women themselves who took the study said 70% of the time it was the women who committed violence against the men.
Health: Third Annual Northwest Tribal Opiate Symposium Dec 12 - Objective: To bring tribes together to share current best practices, learn more about medication assisted treatment, and to provide new ideas and strategies to optimize opiate treatment programs. Note: Thanks to Deborah Sosa for this.
October 2013
Health: Mike Williams Sr. To Help Lead Suicide Prevention Summit - Tribal leaders from around the state will be gathering in Anchorage this week to address the suicide epidemic. It’s sponsored by the Alaska Tribal Leaders and is their 13th annual summit meeting. All 229 tribes in Alaska are invited. Scheduled speakers include Native American fishing rights activist Ed Johnstone of the Quinault Nation and Brian Cladoosby, Chairman of Swimonish Tribe, both from Washington.
June 2013
Health: 'Invisible' Urban Indians - Urban Indians are not new to the urban scene, as New York Times reporter Timothy Williams suggested in his article, "Quietly, Indians Reshape Cities and Reservations," published online Saturday, April 13. Nor is their ongoing struggle against invisibility new, as Williams accurately depicts. In 2007, the Urban Indian Health Institute at the Seattle Indian Health Board published a report titled, Invisible Tribes: Urban Indians and Their Health In the 21st Century.
Health: Group honors Spokane Valley resident for her work at Healing Lodge - During National Health Week last month, Spokane Valley resident Martina Whelshula was named a health champion by the Washington State Public Health Association. Whelshula is the executive director of the Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations, an in-patient youth rehabilitation facility in Spokane Valley.
Health: Native Americans in Oregon and nation offer lessons for fighting diabetes - Native Americans have tackled diabetes head-on because they have been hit harder by it than any other racial and ethnic group in the country. "The one with the biggest problem has to solve the problem," says Sharon Stanphill, director for the Cow Creek tribal health center in Roseburg. "Indian country knows diabetes. We know what to do." Since 2004, NARA and the Southern Oregon Diabetes Prevention Consortium – which includes the Coquille, Cow Creek Band of Umpqua and Klamath tribes – have run clinics to help pre-diabetic and diabetic Native Americans change their lifestyles. Note Grains and legumes poison our bodies and predispose us to diabetes.
July 2012
Health: LightSquared donating satellite phones to Nisqually tribe - LightSquared is donating 200 satellite phones and service to Indian tribes in Washington, Oregon and two other Western states. The donations will allow tribal health care workers treating patients in remote areas without cell phone or land-line service to communicate with doctors. These phones will be distributed to tribal health care facilities including the Coquille Indian Tribe Community Health Center in Coos Bay, Ore.; the Nisqually Tribal Health Clinic in Nisqually, Wash.; the Benewah Medical Center in Plummer, Idaho; and facilities in the Tohono O’odham Nation in Sells, Arizona.
Health: Native Americans strive for health against alcohol, chaos and trauma - Addiction is both a cause and product of the cycle of chaos that crushes Native families generation to generation. Alcohol and drug use statistics for Natives in the four-county metro area mirror national figures: A smaller portion drink alcohol, but a bigger share abuse it, 31 percent vs. 25 percent of all Americans.
May 2012
Health: Portland-area Native Americans take on a diabetes epidemic - Native Americans have the highest diabetes rate among all racial and ethnic groups in America and offer a preview of where the rest of the country is headed. They also have found ways to keep the disease at bay. Nationally, one in six Natives have diabetes, more than double that of white Americans. Nearly a third have pre-diabetes. Natives die at three times the rate of the general population from the disease, which can cut a life short by 15 years. Diabetes also steers tribes into a larger share of other health problems.
Health: Portland-area Native Americans burdened by health hurdles generation after generation - By most measures, Native Americans' health problems exceed the average, and it's even worse for urban Indians who can't tap social and health services available on distant reservations. The problem's not new, but some of the solutions are. Native Americans have built their own health organizations that mix Native traditions and Western medicine. They have acted on a fundamental truth -- what people do at home with diet, exercise, conflict and lifestyle more profoundly affects health than what a doctor prescribes in the clinic. Comment: Unfortunately, most tribal clinics still embrace the sickness care model of mainstream society.
April 2012
Health: Tribal clinic uses native foods to fight diabetes - To walk into the central gathering space of the Potawot Health Village in Arcata, a multi-tribal health clinic, is to be made instantly aware of the concept of traditional native food as medicine. “Got Acorns?” reads a poster. “Got salmon?” “Got seaweed?” Built, administered and owned by American Indians, Potawot is at the front line of a national resurgence among native peoples to address the link between the loss of ancestral native foods and disproportionate rates of diabetes and other chronic diseases.
March 2012
Health: Tribal Governments Qualify For Federal Health Insurance - Oregon’s tribal governments will soon be able to buy the same health insurance policies for their workers that federal employees get. About 8 million people are already covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. It lets policyholders pick and choose from a variety of health care products. The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act extends the eligibility for that program to employees of tribal governments.
Health: Nutrition a Pressing Concern for Native Americans, Part III - Some tribes have started cutting out sugary beverages at community events. The S'Klallam tribe of Jamestown, WA took a drastic step toward building a healthy environment in 2008 when it requested that the new, large convenience store at its 7 Cedars Casino not have a deep fryer in-store.
Health: SPIPA Sets Tribal Health Conference - The South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency (SPIPA) is calling together members of 7 area Tribes at the end of the month to address the problem of colorectal cancer in Tribal Communities, it's their 2nd leading cause of cancer deaths.
Health: Nutrition a Pressing Concern for Native Americans - Part I - The battle with obesity has become one of the most urgent health issues in America today, as over one third of adults and 17 percent of children are now obese. But for Native Americans, this problem is even more dire.
Health: Nutrition a Pressing Concern for Native Americans - Part II - Tribal communities nationwide are working to fight the trend toward obesity and its resulting health consequences. In 2008, the Indian Health Service - a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services - reported almost 500 nutritionists working at the country's 561 federally recognized tribes.
Health: Tribal Concerns in Health Exchange Spotlight - It’s been a busy month in Oregon’s world of health policy, but perhaps nowhere more so than the intersection between tribal health issues and the health insurance exchange. American Indian and state leaders signed a contract last week to work through details of qualifications and outreach.
January 2012
Health: Smoking Teeth = Poison Gas
This video shows why tribes should not pay for amalgam fillings, but should seriously consider paying to replace amalgam fillings with fillings that do not contain mercury. The "smoke" in the video is mercury vapor being release by amalgam fillings. It causes many health problems, including brain and nerve damage.
Happiness Lost & Found [Paperback]: Randy Kempf was born in Bolivia, South America. He grew up bilingual and bi-cultural in Bolivia and the United States. He has a Master's Degree in Counseling, specializing in Marriage and Family. He is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of Washington and presently facilitates Life Skills classes on American Indian Reservations.
Astaxanthin 10mg 60 Softgels: Astaxanthin is a naturally occurring carotenoid from sea algae that, because of its unique structure, provides a wide range of antioxidant benefits. Astaxanthin can help to support a healthy inflammatory and immune system response. Plus, after I started taking it my weight dropped from 202lbs to only 185lbs!
Life Extension Vitamins D and K with Sea-Iodine: An avalanche of favorable studies has resulted in record numbers of Americans supplementing with vitamin D. Since it is virtually impossible to obtain adequate vitamin D from food sources, supplementation with 5,000-10,000 IU daily is required by most aging individuals. Vitamin K transports calcium from the bloodstream into the bone.
