Health
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My Daughter Came Down With The Flu and I Learned All About My Family Medical History
The Washington, D.C. area has been hit particularly hard with the flu this season. At my daughter’s school, for instance, as many as 41 kids were out at one time. My boys’ school also felt like a ghost town on several separate days. All three of my children came down with the flu; my daughter…
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A Short Story of How a Black Yogi Made It Possible for Black Detroit to Namaste
DETROIT—Detroit is the blackest city in America. And in this black city exists a black-ass yoga studio where you can be your black-ass self. Amina Daniels, the owner and founder, works hard to keep it that way. Live Cycle Delight, located in Detroit’s gentrifying West Village neighborhood, has two spaces: one where the yoga classes…
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Rapper Diddy Gets Real on IG, Says He Went Through 'Dark Depression' in 2019
While Sean “Diddy” Combs the influencer posted pics of himself to Instagram celebrating the New Year by holding a glass of Ciroc, the “Imma keep it real” Sean posted a video discussing his battle with depression and implored his fans to “lift each other up” in 2020. On New Year’s Day, the fifty-year-old rapper posted…
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New Generation of Black-Led Co-ops Want to End Food Insecurity
“A lot of the neighborhoods in West Oakland had 20 to 30 liquor stores and an assortment of fast-food restaurants but no full-size grocery stores,” Jeneba Kilgore, a worker-owner at Mandela Grocery Cooperative recalled about her hometown 10 years ago. “You could barely find the stuff to make a salad within walking distance.” Briana Sidney,…
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Mo Money, Mo Problems: Life Expectancy Rates in the US Drop for the 3rd Consecutive Year
According to a new report, life expectancy rates in the United States have dropped for the third consecutive year. The report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and cites the escalation of suicide, drug overdoses, liver disease, and dozens of other causes as contributing factors, per the Washington Post: Despite spending…
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Bot Bias: Study Finds a Medical Algorithm Favors White Patients Over Sicker Black Ones
An algorithm used by major hospitals and healthcare providers misjudged how sick black patients were compared with their white counterparts, allowing healthier white patients to get additional medical supports more often. That’s according to the findings of a study published Thursday in the journal Science that looked at patient care based on medical practitioners’ use…
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Report: Suicide Attempts Among Black Teens Increased by 73 Percent
According to a new report, attempted suicide is on the rise among a very specific demographic: black teenagers. From CNN: From 1991 to 2017, the rate of reported suicide attempts by African-American teens rose, especially the rate among black boys, according to a study published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics. The rate for black…
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8 Thoughts I Had While Getting My First Professional Massage
Last Saturday—October 12—was my one-year wedding anniversary. My wife and I made a whole day out of it, doing lunch, dinner and getting our staycation on at a hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., and hitting up a speakeasy for the nightcap. One thing we did early in the day was a couple’s massage at a…
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‘Am I Supposed to Be the Representation?’: A Black Mother Navigates Our Convoluted Mental Health System
Waiting for Tearah, a short documentary about how a black family navigates the labyrinth mental health system in Hartford, Conn., is symbolic of mental health dysfunction on a national level—and a testament to the beauty, innovation, and the sheer determination and grit of black mothers who walk through walls for their children. The 22-plus-minute film…