Thursday, July 23, 2015

Steve Rushingwind Native American Flutest! Red Beaten Path Giveaway and Interview/Review!
















Multi Award & 2013 & 2014 Nammy Award Winning
 Native Flute Artist. 
















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It really does matter what you put into your body including music, and this music is something that is absolutely beneficial to the soul. I was absolutely astonished and so very pleased when I first heard the brand new CD Red Beaten Path by Steve Rushingwind! My ears were delighted with the upbeat sounds and overall complete musical talent. Not only that, but the artist really lives up to and far beyond the talent of today.  The blending of the flute with all sorts of beats as well as vocals really blew away others in this style of music. Rushingwind gives his listeners some of the best Native American flute music in the world. It is not only relaxing music but it is music that lights a fire for the soul. The sounds are amazing and Steve really knows how to groove, let me tell you! The music that this brand new CD is pumping out is NOT for the crowd of listeners that just want to sit back and relax, this music is for EVERYONE! The vocals blow you away with the energy that flows from the tech savvy beats! I just can not get enough of Red Beaten Path. 

I encourage everyone out there that enjoys good, spiritual music to purchase this awesome down to earth CD today.  Red Beaten Path is definitely a CD that will spark you up and keep you going as well as keep you focused and relaxed. If you are interested you can also tune in to some of his music before purchasing. Especially if you are a new listener, I guarantee you his music will give you what you are looking for and much, much more! Click the buy now link below to go directly to the purchase site and get your copy today! I give Steve Rushingwind's new CD Red Beaten Path FIVE SUPER STARS!



 * I was given the CD Red Beaten Path by Steve Rushingwind for an honest review.
 All opinions are my own and I have not been compensated for them. 

FIVE IS THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF STARS FOR REVIEW PURPOSES.


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Thursday, July 16, 2015

Small changes for big differences #obesity crisis #Native peoples @minorityhealth @un4indigenous @WHO

By Bill Graves / Native Health News Alliance
Small social changes in diet and activity could have a big influence on halting weight gain among Native Americans, but it often takes transformational personal changes to drive people to lose weight and keep it off, experts say.
The daunting challenge of motivating Americans to move more and eat less was a dominant theme in the four-day obesity program for 14 health reporters in early June sponsored by the National Press Foundation at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, a suburb of Denver.
In presentations in the university’s Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, researchers, physicians, fitness and nutrition experts, journalists, and food company executives described the biological and social forces that give rise to obesity and strategies for pushing back against those forces.
The challenges may be even bigger for Native Americans because they are disproportionately disadvantaged, with more living both on reservations and in low income city neighborhoods where good food is scarce and options for work and an active lifestyle more limited. The obesity epidemic has rendered 30 percent of Native Americans overweight and another 40 percent obese. The rates for all Americans are not much better, with a third overweight and another third obese.
Dr. Holly Wyatt, a University of Colorado professor of medicine, said to lose weight and sustain the loss people need to have bigger, deeper reasons than fitting into a summer bikini or avoiding diabetes down the road. They need to tap deeper desires to change, to transform, to move from a victim mindset to a sense of empowerment, Wyatt said.
The obesity epidemic over the past three decades is the fruit of our success in building an environment full of calorie-rich, fat- and sugar-laden, low-cost food and machines that allow us to move less both in work and play, said James O. Hill, executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center and co-author with Wyatt of the diet book, “State of Slim.” We have more food energy at our fingertips than ever while our more sedentary lives demand less energy, creating an imbalance that makes us fat.
Our biology is not broken; it is what gets us obese in the current environment,” he says. “Our physiology says eat, eat, eat. Our biology is set up for that”
At the same time, Americans are moving less, with more working service jobs and fewer in manufacturing and only a fraction in farming, said John Peters, professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado. American males at work on average burn about 100 fewer calories today than they did in 1960. Amish men, who still live agrarian lives common in the 1800’s, take 18,000 steps a day compared to an average 6,000 steps for other American men.
Genetics can make people, including some Native Americans, more prone to weight gain, said Dr. Daniel Bessesen, also a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado. Ninety percent of the Pima Indians in Arizona, for example, are obese. Genetically related Pima people in northern Mexico are lean, probably because they are more active in their agrarian lifestyle, Bessesen said.
An individual’s level of impulsivity and emotional attachment to food also can affect weight gain. So can his or her friends. A study of 12,000 people in the Framingham Heart Study between 1971 and 2003 showed that a person’s chance of becoming obese increased by 57 percent if they had a friend who became obese.
While losing weight can be difficult, keeping it off is even more so because the body resists staying lean, Bessesen said. The body metabolism changes and uses less energy, yet the appetite increases. And as the body ages, it burns less energy so if you don’t eat less, you will gain weight. Health experts at the workshop stressed that regular exercise is necessary to successfully keep weight off permanently.
Several speakers also noted that small changes could make big differences in the obesity crisis. Americans eat on average only 15 calories more a day than they burn, enough to add a pound or two a year. Small changes like walking 15 minutes a day or eating a few less bites at each meal could prevent weight gain in most of the population, Hill said. The fast food industry could go a long ways toward equalizing the energy balance by reducing portion sizes for say a hamburger by 5 percent, he said.
One study, which has important implications for Indian Country, found that people can cut the amount of sugar their body absorbs in half by taking a 15 minute walk after each meal, said Dr. James A. Levine, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Brian Wansink, professor of marketing at Cornell University, said schools can double or triple the number of public school students taking fruit for lunch by simply putting fruit in a nice bowl in a well-lit area.
Still, as simple as it might seem to cut 100 calories out of your daily diet, said Wyatt, sustaining that requires a big change in mindset and lifestyle.

© Native Health News Alliance
The Native Health News Alliance (NHNA), a partnership of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA), creates and promotes shared health news content for American Indian communities at no cost.


Wednesday, July 15, 2015

For some American Indians, cost of hepatitis C drugs put treatment out of reach






By Mallory Black / Native Health News Alliance
SAN DIEGO – Public health advocates say hepatitis C is too often left out of the conversation of health in Indian Country, pointing to rising HCV-related mortality rates among American Indians.

The virus, which attacks the liver causing inflammation, is more prevalent in American Indians than in all other racial and ethnic groups, according to Hepatitis Foundation International. Between 2011 and 2012, acute hepatitis C rates increased more than 86 percent for American Indians and Alaska Natives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For American Indians, there is a high prevalence of hepatitis C among baby boomers who contracted it years ago, but also in younger people who inject drugs,” says Jessica Leston, Clinical Programs Manager at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board. “Clinicians are seeing it now all the time.”
Nationally, about one third of injection drug users under 30 are infected with HCV, according to the most recent surveys by the CDC.

The CDC also reports 75 percent of older, former injection drug users have chronic HCV, but don’t realize they’re infected because symptoms can take decades to develop.

A High Price For A Curable Disease

An advocate for Native health, Leston assists tribal clinics in the Northwest and Great Plains regions by helping build community awareness around hepatitis C as well as by providing access to medical specialists who can diagnose and treat the disease.

She says local clinicians know hepatitis C is an issue and want to do something about it, especially now that there’s a potential cure. With the introduction of new antiviral drugs, clinicians could presumably manage treatment.

However, that potential cure comes at a cost - over $1,000 per daily dose, or $96,000 for a full 12-week treatment.

Clinical studies of one of the drugs called Harvoni, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year, have shown 9 out of 10 HCV patients were cured after 12 weeks of treatment, according to the drug’s manufacturer Gilead Sciences.

Hannabah Blue (Navajo), a project manager at the American Indian Public Health Resource Center at North Dakota State University, says many Native people need HCV treatment, yet the high price often puts the cure out of reach.

Financial assistance programs are available for patients to help lower the cost of the antiviral drugs. More information about patient assistance and eligibility can be found through the American Liver Foundation.

Left untreated, chronic hepatitis C can progress into liver failure and liver cancer. In Indian Country, chronic liver disease is the fifth leading cause of death.

American Indians are more likely to die from hepatitis C than other races and ethnicities, making it one of the most deadly diseases for Native people, according to Hepatitis Foundation International.

The foundation’s chief executive officer, Ivonne Cameron, says the epidemic of type 2 diabetes and alcohol abuse in Native communities often propels the progression of HCV infection.

If you consume alcohol at a significant rate, that will further damage the liver and lead to faster progression of hepatitis C-related diseases like cirrhosis, liver cancer, and ultimately cause death,” Cameron says. “These risk factors contribute to the progression of the mortality of the disease.”

Currently there is no vaccine to prevent hepatitis C. An added challenge to combatting the spread of HCV is that many people haven’t been diagnosed, a problem not exclusive to Indian Country.

About 2.7 million Americans live with chronic hepatitis C, according to the CDC. However, citing statistics on the number of American Indians living with the disease is difficult because of the lack of accurate, comprehensive data.

The Stigma Attached To Hepatitis C

Health advocates agree that what has obscured the perception of HCV is its association with HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, and its tie to injection drug use.

Both HCV and HIV are blood-borne viruses with similar risk factors, but Blue says HCV is much more transmission-resilient, surviving on “surfaces, needles and other equipment used for injection drugs for days.”

Transmission of HCV commonly occurs through sharing or reusing needles to inject drugs. Homemade tattoos and using unsterilized tools for body piercings are also risk factors.

Because of occupational exposures such as needle sticks, medical workers can be at increased risk for hepatitis C. Some patients were exposed to HCV via transfusion or other medical procedures that were done prior to 1992, the year a blood test for HCV was approved.

For most patients, the source to the virus is unknown.

We shouldn’t have to wait for an outbreak of hepatitis C to work on preventing it,” Blue says. “Getting tested doesn’t seem urgent, but it is.”

© Native Health News Alliance This is the first in a series of hepatitis c stories produced by the Native Health News Alliance (NHNA), a partnership of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA).

NHNA creates shared health coverage for American Indian communities at no cost. Registered users can download additional print, web and audio content at www.nativehealthnews.com and publish as is or add their own reporting, highlighting important issues within the local Native community. NHNA services are free to all those who think good journalism has a positive impact in the lives of all of our readers, listeners, and viewers.