The Medicine Of Us And Them

When race plays a role in disease.

By Raina Kelley | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jul 15, 2009

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  • Posted By: Shrae @ 07/25/2009 8:49:33 AM

    I am a white women with Triple Negative Breast Cancer. This a type of cancer that is found more in African American women. It makes up only 17% of all breast cancer. Other than Chemo and Rad. we have nothing else to treat it. This cancer causes more deaths due to its nasty aggressive nature. I sometime feel alone in this because a lot of the support groups are for AA women only. One really good one for everyone is Please check it out, www.tnbcfoundation.org donate to the cause to find a cure for this nasty cancer.

  • Posted By: Dredd @ 07/16/2009 4:51:14 PM

    This is such an important concept. Inclusion is the way to go to solve so many problems. There is much to learn everywhere and some contribution from everyone.

    http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/07/ecocosmology-little-people.html

  • Posted By: uspeak41 @ 07/16/2009 11:33:56 AM

    I am a phenomena . . . an African-American senior citizen female, not height/weight proportionate. Diabetes and hyptertension are on "both sides of my family," but I don't have either. Health and cholestrol are great; thank God. I take no prescription medication (sometimes prescribed based on race) and refuse to buy into the myths of medical profiling and assumptions. There is always some degree of fallacy in extrapolating the results of a subset onto the whole. This often causes people to make assumptions and decisions about their health that result in them living with "media-acquired" diseases, problems and prescriptions.

  • Posted By: PearlDuncan @ 07/16/2009 4:55:56 AM

    Interesting article but the premise should be clearer. Risk of disease is not based on the color of our skin but on our genetic profile. Genetic profiles are very individual, even for people of the same race. That's why it's so important for each person to get his or her own genetic profile, whether we get an ancestral genomic or medical genomic analysis. Here's an article, "Personalized Genomic Medicine: Are We and Our Doctors Ready?" that appeared yesterday in Science Blog. http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/blog

  • Posted By: specterx @ 07/16/2009 12:24:20 AM

    "If a genetic component for reproductive cancers is found among some African-Americans, why couldn't there be a biological reason for other disparities between the races?"

    The author brings up an excellent question here. Of course, we don't know the answer; scientists avoid this topic like the plague.

  • Posted By: Celtia @ 07/16/2009 12:23:28 AM

    Why are half the people on this site "nuts", AQua09? Because they don't agree with you?

  • Posted By: AQua09 @ 07/15/2009 10:53:14 PM

    Great article. I am scared to see the comments on this article. It seems about half of the people attracted to comment on this site are nuts.

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