Style me healthy If I wasn't all for making people more aware of their own health -- and how to handle the threats to it -- I wouldn't be doing what I do. I have to say, though, that I'm not sure how I feel about hairdressers and barbers playing the role of health educator. But my own personal internal debate aside, it's an increasing trend in the U.S., and especially here in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. These efforts, coordinated by a few different organizations including BlueCross BlueShield, MedStar Research Institute, and the University of Maryland's Department of Medicine, are aimed at combating heart disease among African Americans in a venue where people may not be expecting health messages, but may be more open to hearing them. These programs came about following two studies done at the University of North Carolina: One showing that 80 percent of African Americans go to a barbershop or hair salon at least once a month and spend over two hours there during an average visit. The other study found that one in five conversations that occur during these visits are health- related anyway. So the idea is to steer more conversations to these topics, and have the barbers and stylists give their customers gentle nudges towards going to see a doctor for thorough screenings. Some shops have even been outfitted with scales and blood pressure monitors and stylists have been trained to take readings and recommend follow-up care accordingly. Similar approaches have been launched in other states to assess cancer risk. Like I said, awareness is a critical part of health, and if these programs are helping to increase it among populations most at risk for certain conditions, then perhaps it's not such a bad thing. I suppose my primary argument against it would be that the "gentle nudges" coming from these hairstylists are all towards mainstream hospitals, clinics, and physicians, which will put anyone with a remotely elevated blood pressure level on prescription anti-hypertensive medication faster than you can say "just a little off the top." There are lots of natural alternatives not only for lowering high blood pressure, but also for reducing your overall risk of cardiovascular disease -- ones that I doubt most hairstylists, and, sadly, even many mainstream doctors, know about. But you have access to information on these alternatives right now, by visiting www.wrightnewsletter.com and logging on to the archives with the username and password listed on page 8 of your most recent issue of Nutrition & Healing. Once you're there, search on the term "hypertension" for a thorough listing of previous articles and eTips on this topic. And if this sort of "stealth" health education is the wave of the future, there's nothing stopping you from joining the ranks and sharing what you know about these natural alternatives with the people you meet, even in the most unlikely places. Source:
"Clipping away at illness," The Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com), 11/16/07 | 
