Category Archives: health

NIH grant studies LGBT smoking cessation

cigarette, gay news, Washington Blade

(Washington Blade photo by Phil Reese)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Institutes of Health issued a $536,526 grant to the University of Illinois for a two-year program ending in July to study smoking cessation among LGBT people, CNS News, a division of Media Research Center, reported last week.

“The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the benefits of culturally targeted smoking cessation intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender smokers,” the NIH grant description said. “Findings will contribute to the scientific literature on reducing smoking-related health disparities among underserved populations.”

The funding began on Sept. 30, 2010 and will conclude on July 31, 2013, CNS reported.

Smart shopping

Organic, groceries, diet, Gay News, Washington Blade

Think eating healthy and organic costs more? Here are a few tips to keep your grocery bill in check. (Photo by ornello_pics via Flickr)

The Amish Trainer: As a personal trainer, my clients voice many questions concerning the high cost of eating a healthy, organic diet. Below are four great tips that will help debunk this myth:

1. Don’t buy food in the package. As often as possible buy your foods, specifically your fruits and veggies, in their most natural state. When you’re at the organic produce section, buy that individual onion, pepper, cucumber, etc. or buy those fresh bundles of spinach, kales, beets, herbs, etc. Often we tend to buy our groceries in packages because the packages not only look pretty and we know the item is already washed, cut and prepared to serve. Although you may think this is saving you time, it’s costing you a lot more money. To put this theory to the test, I decided to buy all my groceries in packages for one week and all my groceries in their natural state for the next week. When I reviewed my receipts, I saved $40 the second week. Although this may not seem like a lot, it adds up over time. If you do the math it is about $2,000 a year (a nice trip on one of those hot gay cruise ships)!

2. Look high and low. One of the biggest mistakes we make when shopping at the grocery store is buying grocery items that are at eye level. To be honest, we’re lazy and want what is right in front of us instead of doing a little work to look for the healthier item. The grocery store knows this so well that many of the items at eye level are also on sale. This is often a great way for grocery stores to promote their own brands, which generally are not the healthiest. Your grocery store is trying to get you. If it’s on sale and at eye level, it must be the item for you. Wrong! Generally, if the item is on sale and at eye level, the item often contains or is made with simple carbohydrates and poor ingredients such as white bleached flour, sugar and high fructose corn syrup. To ensure you’re getting the best and healthiest options, be sure to take the time to look high or low on the grocery store shelf. You are bound to find much healthier options when you do.

3. Read labels. Although you may think reading labels is time consuming, it’s essential when eating healthy. Most products are mislabeled or labeled in a way that makes them look and sound healthier. A great example of this is olive oil. Many of the olive oil brands promote extra-virgin olive oil but aren’t actually extra-virgin olive oil. If you read the label carefully, most of them say “Extra Olive Oil Flavored” or “Tastes Like Extra Olive Oil.” Not only should you read the labels, you should also look for two specific items on the labels. One, be sure that you look for the USDA Organic Icon that is in a white circle with green lettering. Second, be sure that you look for the Non-GMO (Genetically Modify Organism) Project Icon that is light blue with a small red butterfly on a green leaf.

4.  Sign up for rewards and apps. Almost every grocery store has some sort of rewards program or a store app. Take a few minutes to sign up, download and save.  Often the rewards program and apps provide deep discounts or coupons only to those people who have signed up for the rewards. Last week I got a two-for-one deal on my organic peanut butter. It’s the small things that make me happy. In addition, the apps and rewards programs allow you track what you buy and let you see if the item(s) you buy most frequently is on sale.

These steps may seem individually inconsequential, but the cumulative effect can be significant.

Columbia Univ. expands LGBT health initiative

Columbia University, gay news, Washington Blade

Columbia University (Photo by BrOnXbOmBr21 via Wikimedia Commons)

NEW YORK — Columbia University Medical Center announced last week the creation of a new program called the LGBT Health Initiative whose goal is to improve the health and well being of LGBT people, Psychiatric News reported this week.

It was expanded from Columbia’s Department of Psychiatry’s Division of HIV and is now known as the Division of Gender, Sexuality and Health. It’s based at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, the article said.

Robert Krtzner, a research scientist in the department, told Psychiatric News he’s “thrilled that a leading academic department of psychiatry has undertaken a commitment to advance knowledge, treatment, training and policy analysis in LGBT health in an effort to address the effects of stigma in perpetuation of health disparities and urgent health problems of mental health in LGBT-identified youth, transgender persons, older LGBT adults and underserved LGBT populations,” the article said.

NIH grant studies LGBT smoking cessation

cigarette, gay news, Washington Blade

(Washington Blade photo by Phil Reese)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Institutes of Health issued a $536,526 grant to the University of Illinois for a two-year program ending in July to study smoking cessation among LGBT people, CNS News, a division of Media Research Center, reported last week.

“The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the benefits of culturally targeted smoking cessation intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender smokers,” the NIH grant description said. “Findings will contribute to the scientific literature on reducing smoking-related health disparities among underserved populations.”

The funding began on Sept. 30, 2010 and will conclude on July 31, 2013, CNS reported.

Gay groups renew pledge to fight HIV

HIV, AIDS, Gay News, Washington Blade,

Image compilation by Damien Salas.

BOSTON — Statements from about 35 LGBT and HIV/AIDS groups including Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) released a joint letter and video last week committing themselves and their organizations to re-engaging the broader LGBT community to fight HIV, Wicked Local, a Boston-based news gathering site, reported.

“HIV continues to have a disproportionate and devastating impact on our community,” said GLAD Executive Director Lee Swislow. “All of us in the community should consider it our issue, and commit our time, talent and resources to ending the epidemic.”

In U.K., straights in better health than gays

LGBT Health, United Kingdom, Gay News, Washington Blade

Gay Pride flag of the United Kingdom by Fry1989 with Caduceus by Rama and Eliot Lash. (Compilation via Wikimedia)

LONDON — A study released Monday found that British LGBT residents have overall worse health than their straight counterparts, Gay Star News, a European news outlet, reported.

The LGBT Public Health Outcomes Framework Companion Document found that British LGBT residents have higher rates of physical and emotional bullying, suicide and self harm, drug use, alcohol use, smoking and social isolation and vulnerability in old age, the article said.

The document includes several recommendations including that sexual orientation and gender identity should be routinely monitored in health and social care.

The report was executed for health and wellness boards, public health teams, local authorities and other organizations and commissions that provide services. The work was coordinated by the Lesbian and Gay Foundation, Gay Star News reported.

Meningitis vaccines not recommended in Seattle

Seattle, Gay News, Washington Blade

Seattle skyline (Photo by spmenic via Wikimedia Commons)

SEATTLE — Public health officials in Seattle are not recommending gay men there be vaccinated against the strain of bacterial meningitis that infected 23 men in New York and killed seven, Komo 4 News, a regional ABC affiliate, reported last week.

Seattle & King County Public Health officials said there has only been one case of meningitis in the state so far this year and there is no evidence of increased infection. The United States Centers for Disease Control is also not recommending a mass vaccination for gay men. A West Hollywood man who died last month had a different strain of meningitis than the New York City residents, Komo 4 said.

Because the meningitis vaccine is somewhat expensive (about $150) and only lasts about two years, Seattle health officials said only those planning to visit New York and have sex there should be vaccinated. But those who want it for peace of mind, there’s no harm doctors told Komo 4 reporters.

Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, chief of epidemiology for Seattle & King County Public Health, said there’s been an “overreaction” to the New York outbreak.

“With HIV, the response was very slow,” he told Komo 4 staff. “People have this fear that this is going to be the next big epidemic but it’s not going to be.”

Meningitis is an infection of the lining that covers the brain and spinal cord and can be spread through kissing, having sex, sharing food or utensils, drinking glasses, etc. It requires immediate medical attention to prevent brain damage, hearing loss or death.

Gays being considered for ‘Obamacare’

The U.S. Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, atient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, Gay News, Washington Blade

The U.S. Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights is working on details of a plan to show how LGBT Americans will have equal access to benefits outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

HOBOKEN, N.J. — The U.S. Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights is working on details of a plan to show how LGBT Americans will have equal access to benefits outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), the Credit Union Times and one of its sister sites Benefits Pro, reported last week.

The Act promises “health care regardless of race, color, national origin, disability, age or gender.”

Based on available numbers, the National Academy of Sciences, in a report released in 2011, agreed that gay and transgender people often face “barriers to equitable health care” and receive substandard care when they seek it.

One big variable already identified clearly: While many of those with HIV live in the nearly 30 states that have either already opted for Medicaid expansion under PPACA or are in the process of doing so, there are many more who live in states still sitting on the sidelines, Benefits Pro reported.

Other possible impediments to proper care are being explored, the article said.

Aussie kids thrive with gay parents

gay parents, Capital Pride, gay news, Washington Blade

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian study underway at Melbourne University found that children of gay and lesbian couples are doing as well as or better than children of straight parents in a number of key health indicators, LGBTQ Nation reported last week.

The Australian Study of Child Health in Same-Sex Families (ACHESS) was conceived to study the overall health and well being of children of gay Australians and the impact anti-gay discrimination has on them, the article said.

The study gathered data on 500 children under the age of 17 from 315 parents and found that on measures of general health and overall family cohesion, children with same-sex parents showed a significantly better score when compared to children from other backgrounds and family contexts, the article said. For all other health measures, there were no statistically significant differences.

The study’s preliminary results can be read on the ACHESS website.

Curbing LGBT health disparities

We are on the verge of realizing a healthcare system in which all providers, whether they identify as LGBT or not, are better educated about the unique health needs of our community and how to appropriately address and screen for the health challenges that LGBT people face.

In January, the National Institutes of Health released a groundbreaking report, based on recommendations from the Institutes of Medicine’s 2011 “The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding,” outlining a strategy to support research to increase the knowledge base for promoting the health of the LGBT community. The Department of Health and Human Services has also begun collecting LGBT health data through the National Health Interview Survey, with release of preliminary raw data due out later this summer.

These efforts will develop the evidence base needed to drive changes in policy, funding streams and public health efforts to curb LGBT health disparities. However, there must be a commensurate increase in agents of such change through expanded education to develop health professionals competent in delivering LGBT-sensitive care.

On this count, back in 2011, a study conducted by the Stanford School of Medicine and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that a majority of American and Canadian medical schools lacked LGBT-related health curricula in the classroom and in clinical training. The 132 deans (75 percent of those queried) responding to the survey reported a median time dedicated to LGBT-related content of only five hours for their entire four-year medical school curricula, with many reporting no dedicated time at all.

In response to these findings, numerous medical schools and other health professional programs throughout the country have since revamped their human sexuality curricula, often with input from LGBT students.

Locally, the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences has made tremendous strides on this front. Not only does the program employ a number of out LGB faculty and hospital attendings and provide a robust, extensive and updated human sexuality module for its medical and physician assistant students, but also GW Hospital has been working to forge an increasingly strong relationship with Whitman-Walker Health over the past several years.

The newly appointed Dean of the GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dr. Jeffrey Akman, is gay and has worked tirelessly on behalf of the local LGBT community during his nearly 30-year tenure as a psychiatrist for the hospital. His plan for the coming years includes a “key priority” of further expansion of diversity in health professional training.

GW is also the newest of only several universities in the country to create a graduate level certificate program in LGBT health, which was launched earlier this spring and is still accepting applications for the coming year.

Spearheaded by Dr. Stephen Forssell and housed in the Department of Professional Psychology, this multidisciplinary, year-long, 12-credit program with faculty from the fields of medicine, psychology, public policy and law, aims to distinguish itself from the two other existing programs in several ways. It will use a “hybrid” approach of both online and classroom learning with an unmatched degree of exposure to public policy, given the program’s position in D.C.

Importantly, a required component of the program will be a capstone project allowing students to apply their skills to address LGBT health disparities. As such, students will gain hands-on training that will positively impact the health of LGBT people in a variety of settings. With its strong focus on applied care, the program is geared primarily toward those who work on the front lines with clients and patients and professionals in policy and healthcare system delivery and management.

Already the program has received applications from a diverse spectrum of individuals, including dancers, physicians, public health officials and lawyers, from throughout the country and the world – even as far away as Uganda.

Since we are finally developing the evidence base needed to address the health problems most impacting our community, we now must ensure our future health workforce is capable of acting on this new information. Given the recent steps taken by many graduate training programs, including GWU, I am encouraged about the progress being made thus far.

For those interested in more information on the new GWU LGBT health graduate certificate or who would like to apply, visit: http://programs.columbian.gwu.edu/lgbt.

Daniel Fredrick O’Neill completed his medical doctorate from GWU this month and will pursue his internal medicine residency at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.