(Akiit.com) Why the media’s obsession with blaming “undercover brothas” for the HIV epidemic in black America is hurting us…

Last Tuesday on The View, during a conversation about the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood, guest host D.L. Hughley attempted to school America on why HIV is so prevalent among African-American women. He said with confidence, “They are getting it from men who are on the down low.”

Sigh. Yes, he went there.

Then View co-host Sherri Shepherd, oh so eager to co-sign, chimed in and said, “The down low is African-American men who have sex with men and then have sex with their girlfriends — or their wives. They’re husbands, as well. It’s very prevalent in the African-American community. Very!”

No, neither one of these comedians-turned-talking heads is an AIDS expert. I think it’s safe to say that if they were asked to name three antiretrovirals sold on the market or tell us what distinguishes HIV from AIDS, there would be awkward silence and an unexpected commercial break.

But nowadays, having expertise (or an ounce of knowledge on a topic) is not mandatory for a media platform. Anyone with a camera aimed at them can spout off at the mouth, claiming that fiction is fact, and it goes completely unchallenged. Meanwhile, Americans continue to be bamboozled.

Had The View actually asked established experts such as the University of California, Los Angeles’ Chandra L. Ford, White House Office of National AIDS Policy’s Gregorio Millett, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Kevin Fenton to come on the show, all of them would have shut down Shepherd & Company.

They would have said that yes, closeted gay black men exist, but contrary to popular belief, the DL is not a major force in the rise of HIV infections among black women in this country. And to substantiate this, they probably would have cited the mounds of data and research findings from the numerous studies they have conducted over the years.

They might have even shed some light on what really fuels HIV: people having unprotected vaginal and anal sex with multiple partners or even one partner; high rates of incarceration that take men out of the mating pool and create a system of women sharing the same man; intravenous drug use that accounts for 20 percent of all HIV infections among black women; other untreated sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as herpes and gonorrhea, which make people more vulnerable to contracting HIV once exposed to the virus; and people having unprotected sex, unaware that they are positive, who are going untreated while highly infectious.

Most important, any one of these experts would have said that there are heterosexual black men who have HIV, and HIV-positive women who pass the virus to men, and everyone needs to get tested.

Perhaps the hard facts just weren’t sensational enough for The View.

Unfortunately, AIDS-related misinformation is not just relegated to silly morning talk shows. Last October, CNN, which bills itself as America’s most trusted news source, ran a segment in its Black Men in the Age of Obama special about gay and bisexual black men.

Instead of discussing pertinent issues that gay and bisexual black men in this country face, CNN anchor Don Lemon, Essence Editor-in-Chief Angela Burt-Murray and a panel of ostensibly straight black men (none of whom possessed HIV or LGBT expertise) used the time to talk about how the down low is killing black women. Once again, there was no proof to back up these claims, just regurgitated homophobic hoopla being passed off as news. No bias, no bull? Yeah, right.
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(Akiit.com) The popularity of alternative, or complementary, medicine has increased rapidly in the recent years.

There are a number of different reasons why people consult alternative practitioners. But by far the most common reason is dissatisfaction with what orthodox medicine has to offer.

Patients are frightened by the high incidence of side effects known to be associated with the use of modern drugs and surgical techniques; they are annoyed by the lack of time and courtesy offered to them by many doctors; and they are attracted by the promises of a sympathetic manner and of what they assume to be risk-free therapies that are associated with alternative practitioners.

There is little doubt in my mind that the dissatisfaction with orthodox medicine is well-founded in many cases. There is now ample evidence available to show that medical school trained practitioners can often be more interested in their research programs than in the welfare of their patients, and more interested in the science of medicine than the art of healing.

The boom years of alternative medicine have seen the development of a vast number of specialties. Some are ancient, others are relatively modern; some are symptomatic, others are designed to improve the overall health of the individual; some are based on mental powers, others are used purely on physical ailments. Some techniques are logical, while most I find are others are irrational and illogical.

There has been an explosion in the number of practitioners offering alternative medicine services. Almost everyone knows somebody, who knows somebody who claims to be a “Holistic Doctor”.

For the individual patient wanting to take advantage of the services offered by these alternative practitioners there is one enormous problem: how to tell the difference between the well-qualified practitioner and the out-and-out quack.

Surprising though it may seem, there are few laws about just who can or cannot practice alternative medicine. And there are no laws to prevent individuals from setting themselves up as training establishments or “colleges” and offering diplomas by post to students prepared to part with the appropriate fee.

It is possible for someone with absolutely no training to leave their factory or office job on Friday evening and set up shop as an alternative medicine practitioner on Monday morning! In the afternoon the same practitioner can even open his or her own training school!

Many alternative medicine practitioners offer an excellent and valuable service. I am an enthusiastic supporter of many types of alternative medicine. But we must not ignore the fact that there are practitioners offering their services today who couldn’t pass a basic biology exam. Some of them know virtually nothing about anatomy or physiology. Unfortunately, this means there are plenty of practitioners around who are a definite menace and a danger to the health of their patients.

Some of those who practice alternative medicine claim that their treatments are entirely safe. This is not true. There are a number of very real dangers associated with all types of alternative medicine.

First, there are the intrinsic dangers associated with alternative therapies even when they are practiced competently. Natural remedies are, in most cases, drugs. They act on the body and its organs in the same way a drug would.

Secondly, there is the very real risk that because of a poor training an alternative practitioner will make an incorrect diagnosis and treat a patient improperly. For example, in one well-documented case a 22-year-old woman died of tuberculosis after being treated with Epsom salts, herbs and a fruit diet by an alternative medicine practitioner who thought she was constipated.

Thirdly, there is the equally real risk that a treatment offered by an alternative practitioner will interact dangerously with a treatment offered simultaneously by a medical doctor. Prescribed drugs and herbal products are, for example, likely to produce a dangerous response. Patients should always tell their doctors when seeing alternative practitioners.

Fourthly, there is the problem that alternative practitioners are not usually available at night or at weekends. This means that in an emergency the patient of such a practitioner may be left to fend for him or herself.

In the past those who have written about alternative medicine have fallen into two clearly defined categories. On the one hand there have been those who have dismissed all alternative remedies as irrational and irrelevant. On the other hand there have been those who have praised and supported all aspects of alternative medicine without reservation or criticism. Some doctors have claimed that all alternative practitioners are ignorant and useless. Some alternative therapists claim that they have all the answers to all medical problems.
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(Akiit.com) *Forty.

It’s a number I can’t get out of my mind. I’m not talking about 40 acres and a mule. Nor am I talking about 40 days and 40 nights. And I am not talking about 40 ounces of a malted, adult beverage.

The number 40 that I can’t get out of my mind is the Centers for Disease Control report that 40% of all African American women are obese – compare this to 29% of Hispanic women who are obese and 24% of white women who are obese.

What a sobering statistic. That’s practically half of us. I am having a difficult time digesting this – no pun intended.

We literally lead the nation in obesity. It’s not a distinction I want African American women to be known for in terms of leadership. But it’s a distinction that should not take me or anyone by total surprise. When I take a cursory, non-scientific look around us, obesity is fairly pervasive in our culture from coast to coast. Just seeing it printed in screaming, black and white letters stings.

No longer are we simply overweight, we’ve tipped the scales into the realm of obesity. This is a new distinction we are wearing on our hips, buttocks, stomachs and thighs.

So what is obesity? Obesity is measured with a Body Mass Index-BMI-which shows the relationship of weight to height. Women with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight, while women with a BMI of 30 or more are considered obese. Today the face of obesity is overwhelmingly an African American female – and that’s a fact.

So many reasons have been offered why African American women lead the nation in obesity. Lack of access to healthy foods, lack of nutrition education, and lastly race – specifically an overall acceptance of larger body types among African Americans as a whole – are some of the most widely held reasons.

“We know that racial and ethnic differences in obesity prevalence are likely due to both individual behaviors, as well as differences in the physical and social environment,” said Liping Pan, M.D., M.P.H., and a Center for Diseases Control epidemiologist in an interview last year.

Yeah, that may be true, but what is also true is that we are abdicating our personal responsibility in taking control of our health when night after night we get our dinner served to us and our families at a drive through window instead of served on a dinner plate at home filled with a balance of vegetables, proteins and carbohydrates.

I did a non-scientific survey at my local supermarket and found that our shopping carts contain a mountain of cardboard boxes and shiny, supersized bags of crunchy, salty, sweet snacks compared to shoppers in markets on the Westside of town whose carts were overwhelmingly filled with lighter fare such as fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, fish, poultry – you know -foods you have to cook in a real kitchen.

There is not an African American man, woman or child who is clueless about what constitutes good nutrition versus bad. Children learn about it in school and adults get pummeled by messages in the media and by their physicians.

“We need a combination of policy and environmental changes that can create opportunities for healthier living,” concluded Liping in that same interview.
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(Akiit.com) The small country called Haiti’s new international fame comes at a huge price to its people. On January 12th 2010, mother earth shook during a 7.3 earthquake that left an estimated 230,000 Haitian people dead and another 300,000 injured. Underneath the rubble of debris, rescue workers found bodies of little boys and girls. As the world asks why, I quickly answer; Mother Earth isn’t happy. She has put up with human evolution for millions of years. Her frustration with modern mans abuse through misuse of technology is evident. As humans, we have evolved into the powerful technological people that we are today, but at what expense? Dr. Ivan van Sertima, the world renowned Professor who taught at Rutgers University stated once, “We have the power to send man to the moon, but that same technology has put a hole in the ozone layer.” Damage to our natural resources including land and water is at and all time high. We are currently dealing with tsunami’s, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and not to mention global warming. Why can’t we see the part that we are playing in our own destruction? Historically, Haiti fought off Napoleon which led to the two cents per acre sale of American land, now called the Louisiana Purchase. This, among other historical revelations, including the fact that millions of trees were cut from the Haitian land to pay off debt, which in result made Haiti prone to earthquakes are just a few things we all must realize.

We can learn from the people of the ancient mythical city that some called Atlantis. As one learns the Atlantis story, you can see that while the land was sinking under water, many people refused to acknowledge that their behavior was the reason why. Whether we believe Atlantis to be real or myth, we must all learn the important lesson of ignorance to the power of will. The outpour of help for the Haitian people from countries all over the world was a sign that we are starting to love all. As soon as I say that, reality sinks in when I turn on the TV and I see a Christian preacher telling the world that the Haitian people are cursed. Where is the sympathy to one who is suffering? We must all see that the Creator loves all or none. As we try to get rid of the epidemic of delusional thinking that plagues America, we must see that there is hope. We must strive to get rid of the mental state that has caused huge problems for humanity.
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(Akiit.com) This coming Thursday, April 22nd will be the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. This is a day that people are encouraged to think about the environment, and the effects that man’s day to day activities have upon the earth. It started as a movement based in college teach-ins on the west coast, and would eventually be recognized as an official day that issues effecting the environment come to the fore.

40 years later, there is good reason to believe that the work of these early environmental activists have been seriously set back in the name of political expediency. President Obama has green-lit two energy initiatives that stand in sharp contrast to the stated goals of the environmental movement in the past 40 years. With a new call for off-shore drilling and new nuclear power plants, there is much for those who are concerned about the environment to consider.

The oil companies and monied interests; e.g. nuclear power advocates have much to be happy about. Those cognizant of the long term effects of these forms of energy do not, and should be up in arms about this latest maneuver. The negative environmental impact of both practices are well known, and if Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Exxon-Valdez don’t mean anything to you, then these new initiatives open up the possibility of painful new reminders of the downsides of attempting to utilize these outmoded energy sources.
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