Health News in Brief: September 2003

Cherokee Dentist Named New IHS Head

WASHINGTON - The Senate has unanamously confirmed Dr. Charles Grim, a 20-year IHS veteran, a Cherokee tribal member and a dentist by training, as director of the Indian Health Service.

Dr. Grim takes up his post at a time when health care is well into a transition from response to infectious disease to a pre-emptive emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention - phrases that have become a regular mantra of Grim’s public appearances.

As IHS director, Grim will administer a nationwide multi-billion dollar health care delivery program comprised of 12 administrative areas, overseeing local hospitals and clinics, a work force of more than 15,000 employees, and a nationwide network of 49 hospitals, 269 health centers, 176 Alaska Native village clinics, and 133 health stations.

His previous experience has been centered in the IHS Oklahoma area office, the second-busiest in the IHS system.

House Passes NIH Funding for Indian Sex Research

WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives narrowly handed a defeat to representatives who wanted to forbid the National Institutes of Health from giving grants to researchers conducting four sexual research projects. The 212-210 vote preserved NIH block grants for next year which are expected to total $1.4 million.

The grants and their estimated cost include $500,000 for an Indian-related study to be conducted at the University of Washington in Seattle. The research will study American Indian and Alaskan Native lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and "two-spirited individuals."

The National Institutes of Health, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, receive 120,000 grant applications a year, awarding funds to about one-third of them.

Higher Death Rates Among Native American Men Studied

NEW YORK - American Indian and Alaska Native men have substantially higher death rates from accidents, suicide and homicide compared to their female counterparts, a new study has found. In addition, men in this ethnic group are much less likely to seek medical care compared to Native American women, according to the study in the American Journal of Public Health.

The new information suggests that Native American men should be targeted for a variety of education and prevention programs aimed at reducing their risk of death, according to the study's author, Dr. Everett R. Rhoades of the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.

The findings are based on health trends data collected by the American Indian/Alaska Native Health Service, which has the responsibility of providing healthcare to approximately 1.5 million Native Americans in the U.S. Heart disease was the top killer of both Native American men and women, according to the report. But among men aged 15 to 45, the higher death rate is "overwhelmingly" due to accidents, suicides and homicides.

After accidents, the next leading causes of death for men were cancer, chronic liver disease due to alcoholism, suicide, diabetes, stroke and pneumonia or influenza. For women, the next leading causes of death after heart disease were cancer, accidents, diabetes, stroke, chronic liver disease, pneumonia or influenza and suicide. Rhoades recommends that healthcare experts direct their efforts toward providing programs that may reduce the high death rates among Native American men.

Quit Smoking and Lose Weight to Beat Cancer

WASHINGTON - If more Americans quit smoking, lost a little weight and started eating better, at least 60,000 cancer deaths could be avoided each year, according to a report issued by a government advisory panel.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommended 12 steps that could increase cancer prevention and detection, including enforcing laws to reduce tobacco use, developing a national strategy to decrease obesity and encourage a healthy diet and improving the public's understanding of cancer prevention.

"To save the most lives from cancer, health care providers, health plans, insurers, employers, policy makers and researchers should be concentrating their resources on helping people to stop smoking, maintain a healthy weight and diet, exercise regularly, keep alcohol consumption at low to moderate levels and get screened for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer," according to the report.

Although many Indian tribes consider tobacco a sacred gift and use it during religious ceremonies and as traditional medicine, the tobacco-related health problems they suffer are caused by chronic cigarette smoking and spit tobacco use, the report said. Nationally, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

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