Black Cardiologists' Community Health Ed Campaign Assisted By Donation

The Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc. (ABC) today announced that its community health education campaign will be assisted by a donation of 200 laptop computers from St. Jude Medical, Inc.

The computers will arrive pre-loaded with a series of educational videos on cardiac conditions and treatments, such as sudden cardiac arrest and the heart's anatomy. According to Waine Kong, M.D., and chief executive officer of the ABC, "We appreciate the generosity of St. Jude Medical and welcome their participation in empowering patients to be Community Health Advocates."

The computers will be distributed to ABC-trained "Community Health Advocates," who will use the computers and videos to increase awareness of cardiovascular diseases among minority populations in neighborhoods and cities served by the Advocates. Community Health Advocates are lay people who have been trained by ABC to promote heart health in local communities. The platform for this program is ABC's Seven Steps to Good Health:

1. Be spiritually active. According to a study from the University of Texas, African Americans who go to church regularly live 14 years longer than African Americans who do not go to church. In addition to God's grace, the fellowship, good will, meditation, inspirational words and singing together which increases our ability to cope, apparently contributes to this increased life expectancy.

2. Take charge of your blood pressure. Tell your doctor you want to keep your blood pressure at goal (120/80mm Hg). Despite steady progress over the past fifty years, it is frightening to contemplate the potential for a global epidemic as the rate of uncontrolled high blood pressure is projected to increase by 60 percent over the next twenty years.

3. Control your cholesterol. Keep your HDL high (greater than 50), and your LDL (less than 70), and total cholesterol low (less than 200). High cholesterol leads to plaque which restricts the flow of blood. Diet, exercise, and statin therapy are the keys to maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.

4. Track your blood sugar and maintain ideal weight. Obesity and diabetes track each other. As the rate of obesity goes up or down, so does diabetes. If you are overweight, you run a very high risk of developing diabetes which increases your risk of heart attacks, strokes, blindness, amputations and impotence. Your fasting plasma glucose should be less than 75 and your hemoglobin A1C should be less than 7.

5. Enjoy regular exercise, follow a sensible diet and get a good night's sleep. Move those muscles 30 minutes per day. Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables, reduce fats and sugars but most of all, eat less. If you don't sleep well, get a sleep study and follow your doctor's advice. Sleep apnea, a significant contributor to heart disease, is much more common among those who are obese.

6. Don't smoke. Nobody argues with this anymore, not even smokers. It constricts the arteries, increase carbon monoxide in the body, lowers the good cholesterol, makes a chimney of your nose and is the primary cause of lung cancer. Smoking is the most preventable cause of premature death in the United States.

7. Access better health care and faithfully take your medication as prescribed. It is no longer acceptable for the most vulnerable among us to receive the worst care. Just because some of us are poor does not mean we should be relegated to poor care. All members of society deserve to receive respectful, culturally competent health services. If you are unhappy with the care you are receiving, go somewhere else. And it does no good for you to go to physicians, have your condition diagnosed and medication prescribed if you don't fill the prescription and take it as directed. If you cannot afford the cost of your prescription, your doctor can help you get these medicines free. This is the United States of America; no one should go without proper medical care.

"Minority populations in this country suffer disproportionately from cardiac conditions such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease and sudden cardiac death," said Mike Rousseau, president of St. Jude Medical's U.S. Division. "We applaud and are pleased to support the ABC for its pioneering efforts in this grassroots, educational initiative."

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) rank as the No. 1 killer of African Americans, claiming the lives of 36.3 percent of the more than 291,000 black adults who die each year. Each day, 300 African Americans die from cardiovascular disease. Among African Americans, the CVD death rate was higher than the general population (289 per 100,000 people), at 448.9 males and 331.6 females per 100,000 people. The age-adjusted 2004 death rate from coronary heart disease (CHD), which includes heart attack, was more than 23 percent higher among black adults than for the total adult population in the United States.

The donated laptop computers are repurposed Dell Latitude computers with Windows 2006 or XP operating systems, 40 Gigabyte hard drives and Macromedia Flash 8 video players.

About the Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc.
Founded in 1974, the Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc., is a nonprofit organization with an international membership of nearly 600 health care professionals. The ABC is dedicated to eliminating the disparities related to cardiovascular disease in all people of color. Today, the ABC's public and private partnerships continue to increase our impact in communities across the nation. The Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc. is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and has successfully recruited investigators and subjects for numerous clinical trials including hypertension, lipids and heart failure.

About St. Jude Medical
St. Jude Medical is dedicated to making life better for cardiac, neurological and chronic pain patients worldwide through excellence in medical device technology and services. The Company has five major focus areas that include: cardiac rhythm management, atrial fibrillation, cardiac surgery, cardiology and neuromodulation. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., St. Jude Medical employs approximately 12,000 people worldwide. For more information, please visit www.sjm.com.