Study: students of mixed race suffer more health problems - Noteworthy News

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_20_20/ai_111529997/

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.



A new study that involved surveying 90,000 adolescent U.S. students showed that those who considered themselves to be of mixed race were more likely than others to suffer from depression, substance abuse, sleep problems, and various aches and pains.

Conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institutes of Health, the investigation found that adolescents of mixed race were more likely to have other health problems as well.

"It did not matter what races the students identified with, the risks were higher for all of them if they did not identify with a single race," says Dr. J. Richard Udry, principal author of a paper on the work appearing in the November issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

"Most of the risk items we assessed may be related to stress, and so we believe being of mixed race is a source of stress," Udry says. "From this work, we cannot identify further the sources of that stress. More research is needed to identify those sources and possibly suggest programs that might help biracial adolescents."

The new findings derive from data compiled as part of the UNC-based National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the largest and most comprehensive survey of teen-agers ever conducted in the United States.

In the detailed surveys they completed, students could give more than one answer when asked about their race. Those who called themselves biracial tended to be more likely to smoke and drink, Udry said. Overall, older biracial children were more likely to have sex at younger ages, to have access to guns and to have poorer experiences at school such as through suspensions, skipping class and repeating grades.

In characteristics not related to traditional risks, such as grades, vocabulary, family structure and family education, mixed-race adolescents often fell between single-race adolescents, he said. For example, Asians had higher grade-point averages than Whites and were more likely to have a college-educated parent, but children with both Asian and White parents had averages between those two peer groups and were more likely to have a parent who attended college than White-only adolescents.

"Quite a few studies attest in some way to the emotional, health and behavioral risk problems of multiracial adolescents," Udry says. "The most common explanation for the high-risk status is the struggle with identity formation, leading to lack of self-esteem, social isolation and problems of family dynamics in biracial households."

Udry is professor of maternal and child health at the UNC School of Public Health, professor of sociology in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences and a fellow at the Carolina Population Center. His co-authors are Dr. Rose Marie Li, formerly of NIH, and Janet Hendrickson-Smith, research associate at the UNC center.


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Is Diversity a Strength?

All around the world racial, cultural, and religious diversity are sources of tension and conflict -- and often bloodshed -- and yet for at least the past twenty years, Americans have been instructed that diversity is our country's "greatest strength." As Jared Taylor explains, this notion is so obviously wrong that only extremely intelligent people could convince themselves that it is true.

Is Diversity a Strength? from AltRightTV on Vimeo.

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Mixed-race child susceptible to common germ leads to amputations

As his tiny daughter's skin turned blotchy and her body went limp during a lengthy wait at Methodist Hospital's emergency room, Ryan Jeffers panicked.

"This wasn't a simple flu," he said. "My daughter needed help."

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/31/3290271/sacramento-girl-needed-amputations.html#ixzz19iAyXsDM

Malyia Jeffers, 2, has Streptococcus A, which has led to the amputation of both feet and a hand. She is now being treated at Stanford's children's hospital.
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Little did he know that the girl was near death from a common infection that had invaded her blood and was raging out of control, ultimately causing the amputation of both of her feet and one of her hands.

Malyia Jeffers, 2, is still fighting for her life at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, and her Sacramento parents are left wondering how a simple Strep A bug turned into a medical horror story.

"What could I have done differently?" asked Jeffers, who along with the girl's mother, Leah Yang, has been keeping vigil in Palo Alto for nearly a month. He wonders, he said, whether he should have pushed harder to get his daughter care in the emergency room where the family waited for five hours to see a doctor.

"I'm angry, but I can't deal with that right now," he said. "I just want my daughter to get better."

A Methodist spokeswoman, Erin MacEneaney, said the hospital cannot comment on specific cases because of privacy laws. "However, Methodist Hospital does everything to ensure the appropriate level of care for our patients," she said.

The family's ordeal began on a Sunday morning in early December, when the normally rambunctious Malyia developed a fever and became lethargic, Ryan Jeffers recalled.

When her symptoms persisted the next day, Jeffers and Yang, his fiancé, took their daughter to an urgent care center, where specialists told them to go to the emergency room. By the time they arrived at Methodist, he said, splotches that looked like bruises had developed on Malyia's cheeks, and she was "getting really weak," he said. "After a while, she couldn't even walk," and her fever had jumped to 103 degrees.

Jeffers, 29, said he pushed for immediate care, but was rebuffed. After about five hours, he said, he ambushed a nurse and demanded to see a doctor. The physician took blood samples that suggested Malyia was in liver failure, Jeffers said. She was taken by ambulance to the pediatric intensive care unit at Sutter Memorial Hospital. Doctors there had her flown to Stanford aboard a helicopter.

It turned out the girl was in septic shock from a Streptococcus A infection that somehow invaded her blood, muscles and internal organs. About 10,000 cases of "invasive group A streptococcus" infections occur every year in the United States, and as many as 20 percent of patients die from the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Early treatment can reduce death and disability from the disease, but "even the best medical care does not prevent death" in every case, according to the CDC.

One of Malyia's doctors at Stanford, Deborah Franzon, said a combination of the girl's genetics and an unusually virulent strain of Strep A probably combined to make her so sick. The bacteria could have been passed to her from someone else, then entered her blood through a small cut, she said. Once in the bloodstream, it could cause fatal complications.

The youngster was close to death when she arrived at Stanford's hospital, Franzon said.

"She was still awake and talking a bit, but she was ice cold, and her legs were so pale," Franzon said.

The Stanford team put the girl on life support and gave her medicine to boost her blood pressure. They ultimately had to perform operations to amputate her lower legs and her left hand, which had been irreversibly damaged by a lack of oxygen.

Franzon said it is unclear whether immediate emergency care would have prevented amputation of her limbs. The decision to go forward with surgery, she said, was wrenching for both Malyia's doctors and her parents. Doctors were unsure whether she would even survive an operation.

But a series of surgical procedures have been successful and, with prosthetics and rehabilitation, Malyia should "be able to do whatever she wants to do" in life, Franzon said.

In recent days, Malyia has shown flashes of her former spirit, said Jeffers. On dialysis and with a breathing tube in her throat, she has opened her eyes, is responding to questions and is watching television.

"She's a spirited little thing, and she's definitely daddy's girl," said Franzon.

While Malyia's parents have medical insurance, many of their daughter's bills will go uncovered, including a $26,000 tab for her helicopter ride from Sacramento to Palo Alto, Jeffers said. The couple are paying just $10 a day to stay at the Ronald McDonald House, but must cover their food and transportation costs.

In addition to Malyia, Jeffers and Yang are raising a son, Jaden, 6, and Yang's son Christian, 9. Jeffers works part time for a family storage business, he said, and Yang recently graduated from cosmetology school.

"It's been hard, but we're not thinking about money right now," he said. "We're just thinking about Malyia."

Here is a link to a family site showing the White father and Asian mother. http://jeffersfamily.chipin.com/ryan-jeffers-and-family

ATC Says - "...One of Malyia's doctors at Stanford, Deborah Franzon, said a combination of the girl's genetics and an unusually virulent strain of Strep A probably combined to make her so sick. " That's it! She said it right there folks....now what does she actually mean? Her individual genetics or the racial genetics? Sounds like genetics to me......


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African-Americans have more non-calcified plaque than others

CHARLOTTE, S.C., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- African-Americans have more non-calcified plaque than others, which may increase their heart attack risks, U.S. researchers say.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/11/30/African-Americans-have-different-plaque/UPI-18731291171410/

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston say whites had more calcified plaque but African-Americans had non-calcified soft deposits deep in the walls of the arteries.

"The African-Americans and Caucasians we studied had approximately the same amount of plaque in their arteries, but different kinds of plaque," Dr. John Nance Jr. says in a statement.

Nance and colleagues compared 301 male and female patients, half African-American and half white, who underwent two types of imaging for acute chest pain -- calcium scoring to measure calcified plaque and contrast-enhanced coronary CT angiography to reveal non-calcified and mixed plaques.

"This study confirms that the coronary artery disease pathways that lead to acute cardiovascular events are different for Caucasians and African Americans," study co-author Dr. U. Joseph Schoepf says in a statement. "For African-American patients, coronary CT angiography may be a more appropriate screening tool for cardiovascular risk."

The effective dose of ionizing radiation has been considerably reduced, says Schoepf, making it a viable screening option.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago.

ATC Says - As they already have a kind of plaque that increases their risk of heart attack to begin with, it's no doubt their penchant for fried chicken and other fried foods (If you could call it that) goes along way towards insuring a shorter life span - well that and their higher susceptibility to AIDS and other diseases and physical ailments covered on this blog.



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