Our Health Columnist: The Cardiologist Dr. Ramin Manshadi MD
Dr. Manshadi MD, FACC, FSCAI, FAHA, FACP is among the top American cardiologists. The physician is an Interventional Cardiologist who treats patients from prevention to intervention. He is a CMA (California Medical Association) member since 2001. He is a Board-Certified physician with the American Board of Interventional Cardiology, American Board of Cardiology. He combines private practice with Academic Medicine. Presently, he serves as Associate Clinical Professor at UC Davis Medical Center and as Clinical Professor at University of the Pacific among other positions. In addition, he is the Chair of Media Relations for American College of Cardiology, California Chapter. The multi-faceted physician is licensed and certified in nuclear medicine, a subspecialty of radiology. In this regard, he is a member of the American Board of Nuclear Cardiology. It is noteworthy to mention that in his practice, he likes to use innovative tests. If you want to know more about Dr. Manshadi, you can click here: Dr. Ramin Manshadi-Cardiologist. Dr. Manshadi is our health columnist and will be available to answer your questions. You can e-mail him at
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All information included in the health section of our trilingual webmag is not intended as a substitute for individual, professional medical treatment.
Exclusive Interview With The Great Astronaut and Physician: Dr. Bernard Harris MD -- First African-American to Walk in Space
Written by Patricia Turnier LL.M
Friday, 04 January 2013 04:13
Walking in the black vacuum, looking at the blue-white planet Earth more than two hundred miles below, would be a reverie for many children around the world. This dream became a reality for Dr. Bernard A. Harris Jr. on February 9, 1995 during Black History Month, when he glided out the gate of the space shuttle Discovery. This wonderful accomplishment made him the first African-American to walk in space. Actually, he flew on the space shuttle twice in the nineties. Dr. Harris’ story is the epiphany of the American dream, an amazing upward socio-economical mobility.
Dr. Bernard Anthony Harris, Jr. M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.P was born on June 26, 1956 in Temple, Texas. He grew up on the Navajo Nation during his formative years. Dr. Harris left the reserve later with his family and graduated from Sam Houston High School in San Antonio, Texas, in 1974, where he was actively involved in science fairs, book clubs and other academic activities. He obtained a B.S. degree in biology from University of Houston in 1978, and got his Doctorate of medicine (MD) degree from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in 1982. Dr. Harris did his residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in 1985. He later received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Houston Clear Lake. The physician did a National Research Council Fellowship in Endocrinology at NASA's Ames Research Center in 1987.
There is emerging awareness and concern today, as more women now die from coronary disease in this country each year than do men. In fact, when women show up with their first heart attack, 52 percent of them die from sudden cardiac death –- men, 42 percent. This is true even if women don’t have significant blockages in their vessels.
Some of the explanation behind this is that the disease has actually progressed further without a woman necessarily being aware of it. This is partly because women don’t seek out cardiology doctors as much as men do. Plus, when many doctors see female patients, even they don’t treat them as aggressively as they do men. They underutilize the American Heart Association guidelines for treating women, which at the moment are identical for both sexes.
Women’s predisposition toward heart disease is not only a new perception for many doctors, it also contradicts the expectations of most women, who are generally more concerned about cancer than heart disease. This is despite statistics that show for women, one out of every 2.6 deaths in the U.S. is due to heart disease, while one out of every 4.6 females that dies is because of cancer.
Exclusive Interview With Dr. Alvy Ph.D in Psychology
Written by Patricia Turnier LL.M
Friday, 01 March 2013 00:00
Clinton congratulating Dr. Alvy for an Award for Enhancing the Status of Parents, National Parents' Day, Oval Office, 1995
Dr. Kerby T. Alvy Ph.D has decades of experience in clinical child psychology. His approach focuses on preventing child abuse, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency and other problems--often intertwined--in which parent-child relationships are deemed a crucial factor. It is important to note that 2 million kids were abused and neglected in the U.S. in 2008 (1). Thus, Dr. Alvy, an advocate of the welfare of children, is the executive director of the Center for the Improvement of Child Caring (CICC), based in North Hollywood, California. The Center provides help to more than 20, 000 parents a year. Dr. Alvy lends his expertise on child rearing on a regular basis to government and civic bodies. He also appears on television and radio programs on child, family and parent training issues. In addition, he serves as a consultant to governmental agencies, corporations, news departments, film and television companies on these matters. He is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop leader at events nationwide.
Over the years, Dr. Alvy has created, delivered and disseminated model parent training programs. All of the activities and projects of the CICC are designed to bring coherence and strength to the nationwide Effective Parenting Movement in order to improve the overall quality of parenting in the United States. He and his organization work primarily with African-American and Latino children.
Dr. Alvy has been a Principal Investigator on research projects sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. He designed and advocated a federal government-led effective parenting initiative which he presented at a White House Briefing in December 2006.
Dr. Alvy has founded and directed several community service projects to increase parental effectiveness and reduce child abuse, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, school failure and gang involvement. His projects have gained the support of various state and local funding agencies, and the support of over 75 private foundations and corporations, including the Ford Foundation, AT&T, Xerox, Annenberg, Mattel and Hearst.
Dr. Carson, M.D was born in Michigan in 1951 to a young mother in inner-city Detroit. He and his older brother, Curtis, grew up amid poverty, crime, and violence. His parents divorced when Dr. Carson was very young. He and his brother were raised by their mother. After his parents’ divorce, Carson lost confidence in himself and believed his classmates, who would insult him by calling him names. He internalized those insults and began developing a violent temper. His mother challenged him and his brother to strive for excellence. Thanks to his mother’s powerful faith in him, he regained confidence and educated himself by reading two books per week. He had to provide regular reports of his readings to his mother. She had a third-grade education, but a PhD in Life.
A Conversation With The Former Miss Iowa and The Physician Dr. Caudle M.D
Written by Dr. Boyce Watkins Ph.D
Friday, 01 March 2013 00:00
Dr. Jennifer Caudle is the woman that you want your daughter to become. The word "impressive" doesn't do justice to what you see when you study the life of Dr. Jennifer Caudle. As if being a physician isn't already a powerful achievement, Dr. Caudle is also a highly-accomplished cellist (she performs with orchestras in cities around the U.S) and also Miss Iowa 1999-2000. After speaking with Dr. Caudle [a cum laude graduate of Princeton University] at length, I got the sense that she values the idea of having a life worth living, and is determined to also give back to her community in the process. She has pursued excellence for her entire life and brings much-needed expertise to the African American community, particularly on matters of health and education. The child of two teachers (one being a high school principal), Dr. Caudle reflects the discipline and educational excellence that represents the very best of what the black community has to offer. The physician is not a one-trick human being, and she also shows us that we can do anything we put our minds to. [This interview was conducted in February 2011].
[This interview is the 2011 version which was posted previously on our webmag]
A Portrait Of The Surgeon Dr. L. Patricia Turner, M.D.
Written by Patricia Turnier LL.M
Friday, 01 March 2013 00:00
Dr. Turner M.D is a general surgeon and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She is an associate program director for the General Surgery Residency Program at the University of Maryland Medical Centre. She serves as chair of the Surgical Caucus of the American Medical Association (AMA) Young Physicians Section and is a member of the Editorial Board of Surgical News. Her academic interests include teaching and training paradigms for medical students and residents in open and laparoscopic surgery.
Dr. Turner received her medical degree at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and completed her surgical residency at Howard University Hospital. Throughout her residency, she was a senior staff fellow at the National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute, Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism. Dr. Turner’s fellowship training was in minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center & Weill-Cornell University School of Medicine in New York. Dr. Turner's clinical practice focuses on minimallyinvasive/laparoscopic, gastrointestinal and endocrine surgery. She has a diverse research background, including studying nitric oxide and the kidneys. In organized medicine, Dr. Turner has held the position of resident on the general surgery RRC and was the resident member on the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs. Given her considerable experience in her field, we asked Dr. Turner what was her best operation and why. “This is a tough question to answer. I guess, I would say that every operation has a different scenario which is exciting. It happens that I have to deal with trauma patients, life and death situations. I enjoy using new techniques (such as laparoscopy when we first tried it) which have not been employed before. I like that kind of challenge and opportunity. There are specific patients which resonate with you”.
Exclusive Interview With One of the finest psychiatrists in America: Dr. Alvin Poussaint, M.D
Written by Patricia Turnier LL.M
Friday, 01 March 2013 00:00
Dr. Alvin Francis Poussaint MD was born in East Harlem (NY) in a family of eight children. His ancestors were from Guadeloupe and New York City. His parents were Harriet Johnston Poussaint, a homemaker, and Christopher Poussaint, who worked as a printer and typographer. Dr. Poussaint is a renowned authority, an eminent dedicated psychiatrist and teacher, part of the American intelligentsia. He is also a prolific author. In addition to co-authoring Come On People, Dr. Poussaint is co-author of Raising Black Children and Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling the Mental Health Crisis Among African Americans. He closely collaborated with Dr. Bill Cosby Ed.D on several of his best-selling books. Dr. Poussaint’s books should be translated into other languages (French, Spanish, Creole, etc).
He is a man of courage, philanthropy and a veteran of the civil rights movement. From 1965 to 1967, he was Southern Field Director of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in Jackson, Mississippi, selflessly providing medical care to civil rights workers and aiding in the desegregation of health facilities throughout the South. He is the former chair of the board of directors of PUSH for Excellence. He also served as one of Rev. Jesse Jackson's advisers in the 1984 presidential campaign.
Keeping Our Children Heart Healthy: Could My Child Have Heart Disease?
Written by Dr. Ramin Manshadi MD
Friday, 29 March 2013 14:57
Heart disease is the number one cause of mortality in United States for both men and women. According to the American Heart Association, at least 60,800,000 people in this country suffer from some form of heart disease.
Heart disease still ranks higher in mortality even If one combines all cancer death together. When is the best time to prevent and treat heart disease? Fifty percent of time, the first sign of a heart attack is sudden cardiac death. The best time to treat would be before we even develop fat build up in our arteries. Parents have to be educated so that they can help prevent heart disease in their children and to start doing so at a very young age. Autopsies that were done on Korean War veterans with an average age of 21 has shown significant fat build up within their arteries even at this age.
Researchers from Centers for Disease Control (CDC) looked at the data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) over the past decade. The emphasis was to assess how many adolescents were at risk for future heart disease. They assessed at the main risk factors such as high blood pressure, High LDL cholesterol, and diabetes. Some of these findings were disturbing: one in four adolescents has diabetes up by 10 percent from the prior decade. 25% have more than two risk factors for heart disease, 20% have high blood pressure, and 33% were overweight and obese of which Mexican American boys and girls and African American girls are disproportionately affected. Over the past three decades, the prevalence of obesity in children 6 to 11 years of age has increased from 4% to more than 20%. Obesity which is defined a BMI (Body Mass Index) of more than 30, has shown to increase the incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, cancer, degenerative joint disease and many others.
An estimated 300,000 deaths per year are attributed to Obesity. The risk of death rises with increasing weight. Individuals that are obese defined as Body Mass Index more than 30, have a 50-100% increased risk of premature death from all causes, compared to individuals with a healthy weight. The prevalence of Obesity is 35% in United States.
Let us examine the negative effects of obesity on our health:
Heart Disease
. Obesity can raise the incidence heart disease including heart failure, angina, and cardiac death . High blood pressure is twice as common in obese individuals than in those who maintain a healthy weight . It can lead to abnormal cholesterol levels which can cause arterial blockages
Diabetes
. An average weight gain of 15 pounds can increase a person’s risk of developing type 2 Diabetes to twice that of individuals without the gain. . over 80 percent of patients with diabetes are obese