Health Awareness

"Increase community access to disease prevention programs and enhance program services through key community, public, private and/or government partnerships."

 

The Embry Center for Family Life has as one of its primary goals to improve the health and nutritional habits of those in our communities. As African Americans we lead in the rate of occurrence in all diseases that can be attributed to poor eating habits. The “Health for Life” Program will provide an opportunity for persons living in the Landover, Hyattsville, Capitol Heights, and Bladensburg communities to come together in order to explore the issues around healthy living. These areas include Kentland and Palmer Park which are target areas for the Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative initiated by the county executive of Prince George’s County. The program training site will be located at the New Liberation A.M.E. Church, 3107 Hubbard Road in Landover, MD 20785. New Liberation is a short distance from the targeted communities and has had a serving relationship with residents for the past twenty years.

 

The church has had numerous outreach activities in the community and is known to many of the residents as a safe, caring place for them to have their needs met. To that end, the Embry Center for Family Life will be partnering with New Liberation through the use of their facility to host the “Health for Life” program. The Embry Center for Family Life has as its parent, the Embry A.M.E. Church who over the years, through its health ministry and outreach to the community at-large, has provided educational health services by hosting health fairs and seminars to the community. The intent in all of our outreach activities has been to increase awareness on protecting one’s health.

 

Activities that have been addressed by the Health ministry have included but are not limited to physical exercise, heart disease, cancer awareness, and nutrition.

 

We have also provided seminars through the Prince George’s Department of Family Services that educated our seniors on the newest Medicare initiatives. We have also partnered with the Office of Faith Based and Community Partnerships at State of Maryland to provide seminars and information for teens on prevention of HIV and AIDS.

 

The Embry Center for Family Life seeks to establish a replicable project which will address the health needs of the community.

Through a series of interactive workshops/seminars, the correlation between our eating and nutritional habits and the consequences of poor diet will be examined. Implicit in the program will be the formation of an educational resource forum which as its primary goal to develop a sense of community and caring for the participants.

 

Participants will be asked to keep a personal journal to measure their journey. The “Health for Life” program will consist of a total of three seven week cycles for the grant year July 1, 2013 –June 30 2014.

Each 1 1/2 hour session during the cycle emphasizes health and wellness. The grant administrator assisted by a project manager will be responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the program.

 

You can enjoy good health in spite of being "overweight" if you exercise frequently and eat a healthy diet, get enough rest, etc.

Its good to move it!

 

En español

 

As nutrition director for the American Cancer Society (ACS), Colleen Doyle says she's regularly asked for some miracle list of superfoods that will prevent cancer.

There's no such thing, Doyle says. But there are ways to eat that reduce cancer risk in general, and specifically the risk of colorectal cancer, the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States.

 

Here's help to make healthy food choices.

 

Recipes From the American Cancer Society

 

Crab salad with grapefruit, avocado and baby greens

Grilled Baja-style fish tacos

Poached salmon with mango salsa

Black bean and corn salad

Stuffed Greek chicken breasts

Moo shu chicken lettuce wraps

 

This year alone there will be 141,200 new cases, ACS predicts, and about 49,400 deaths from the disease. And 90 percent of new cases and 94 percent of deaths will occur in people 50 and older.

The food we eat is among the things we control that can reduce colon cancer risk. When it comes to diet, here is what the ACS advises:

 

Limit red meat and processed meat. Stats show that eating red meat daily and processed meats several times a week increases colorectal cancer risk. Red meat may raise colon cancer risk because potential carcinogens form when it's cooked at high temperatures, and because the iron in it generates free radicals that can cause cancer-inducing DNA damage. In processed meats, some substances used to prolong shelf life contribute to compounds that can damage DNA.

 

"I don't think the ACS would tell people, 'Don't even have one hot dog, ever,'" Doyle says, "But if you're somebody who eats cheeseburgers and steaks every day, you want to think about cutting down and looking at alternatives."

UMD Center For Health Equity

 

 

(Pictured are:  Craig Scott Fryer,  Dr. Lucille Perez, Maxine Gross,Rev. Edna C. Jenkins, Dr. Stephen B. Thomas,  Joan Branch, Wesley Queen, Susan Passmore)

 

The Embry Center for Family Life has entered into a memo of understanding with the UMD Center for Health Equity.  The M-CHE is based in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland.

 

Center Director Stephen B. Thomas and his team are dedicated to eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities. They are seeking to accomplish this by forging strong connections with communities and helping to improve the lives of all residents.

 

The Embry Center for Family Life and the M-CHE are partnering to develop programs, projects and activities to support the health and well-being of residents of Lakeland and its surrounding community. At present they are working together on the "Healthy Lakeland" project.