Health equity refers to the attainment of the highest level of health for all people. When people experience health inequity, they are experiencing preventable differences in health risk or status as a result of root causes of poor health which are avoidable, unnecessary, and unjust. For example, imagine a non-Hispanic white female born to a […]
guest blogger
Menstrual Health and Taboo
What’s something that women spend an average of 3,000 days doing over the course of their lives, yet rarely talk about? Menstruating! With the typical age of menarche (first period) occurring between 12-13 in developed countries, and an average of two to seven days of menstruation per month-it adds up! Periods add up in other ways, too: some research […]
Beauty Products & Health
FROM OUR LATEST NEWSLETTER: Cosmetics are a part of everyday life for both men and women. In fact, women use an average of 12 personal care products a day; men use about 6. Many people want to look good and feel good, and they use cosmetics to achieve this. Because of their prevalent use in society, it’s […]
Collaborating at the local and state level to reduce disparities and improve equity for all North Carolinians
I think about health disparities, health equity and health inequities every day – in my professional and personal life. As a public health professional, I know the definition of these terms and I understand how they impact my life, the life of my friends, my family, my co-workers and other North Carolinians. What I struggle […]
Tattoos and Body Art
Tattoos & Body Art Body art has been a common cultural practice for thousands of years and includes body piercings, transdermal and subdermal implants, tattoos, scarification, body stretching and sculpting, dental grills, and even nail art. This month we focus on these various forms of body art, highlighting their history, risks, and benefits. An article recently published […]
When Addiction Has a White Face
When Addiction Has a White Face By EKOW N. YANKAHFEB. 9, 2016 WHEN crack hit America in the mid-1980s, for African-Americans, to borrow from Ta-Nehisi Coates, civilization fell. Crack embodied instant and fatal addiction; we saw endless images of thin, ravaged bodies, always black, as though from a famined land. And always those desperate, cracked […]
Artists as Activists: Pursuing Social Justice
Artists as Activists: Pursuing Social Justice By Amy Pleasant Flight by Marie Hoeber. Image courtesy of the artist and Gutfreund Cornett Art. We must never forget art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. John F. Kennedy Some might say that the world is a mess right now. Others point […]
My Doctor DIDN’T Fat-Shame Me And It Was A Radical Life-Changing Experience
OR: A brief history of why I hated doctors for so long, and why I finally stopped. “Your blood pressure is a little higher than I’d like. It’s 120 over 90. If it isn’t lower by the time I next see you, I’ll have to take you off the pill.” I am 20 years old, […]
Are We Raising a Generation of Inept Interpersonal Communicators?
Interpersonal communication aka face-to-face contact is quickly being replaced by all forms of social media contact, but the fact is that it is not the same. People are opting to text, Tweet, Facebook, instant message, email, blog or any other option rather than face-to-face interaction. Some say it’s simply because it’s convenient and so much […]
Twenty Years without a Tear in the United States Army
“You girls are worthless… a waste of my time.” In 1978, I was a visionary 18-year-old girl from Johnstown, Ohio – a town encompassing a grand total of 2.9 square miles and whose idea of big news involved an increased corn yield for one farm family or the next. With nothing to do but go […]