There are many health concerns that plague African-Americans.  One of these, Cardiometabolic Disease, is characterized by a person having two or more of these risk factors and having it can lead to heart attack or stroke.

Diabetes—The prevalence of diabetes is 70% higher among African-Americans as compared to White Americans.  The prevalence of diabetes in African-American women is approximately 85% higher than Caucasian women.

Hypertension—In the U.S, more than 40% or 7.5 million African-Americans have hypertension with 34% of African-American women having it.

Cholesterol—46% of African-American women age 20 and over have levels over 200.

Obesity—49% of African-American women are obese.  African-American women are also more likely than white women to be severely obese: 19% vs. 11%.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among African-American women. The higher mortality rates of heart  disease in African-American women seems to be the result of a higher proportion of African-American women exhibiting the risk factors for increased mortality-cigarette smoking, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, inadequate physical activity, and obesity.

Forty-nine percent of African-American women have cardiovascular disease which is one of the most serious complications of type 2 diabetes and is attributed to 80% of diabetes related deaths.  The prevalence of Cardiometabolic disease (CMD) increases with age:               

- 15.5 % of ages 20-35 have CMD     - 38% of ages 45-64 have CMD             

 - 45 % of ages 65 and older have CMD

In an effort to create awareness of and perform testing to determine its presence, our Cardiometabolic Disease initiative offers individuals an opportunity to learn about this disorder during our education session and then get screened to determine their levels. The actual screening consists of several individual screenings which when combined yield a Cardiac Risk Age. The cardiac risk age serves as an indicator of a person's "body" age.  For instance, if a person is 60 years of age and taken care with proper nutrition and exercise, and let's not forget stress management, they may have a resulting cardiac risk age of 45 years of age...several years younger than their chronological age.  And, the reverse can be true if the person has taken less care with nutrition, diet and stress management.

With the screening results in hand, the person should be lead to consider making lifestyle adjustments to improve their health.  And since change is the key, armed with the information provided by the screening, individuals can look to extend their lives by many years.