The Health In Harlem Podcast

It's the hottest time of the year for many places in the continental United States and with the rise in temperature comes a rise in heat-related illness. More than 600 people die each year in the United States from complications related to heat illness, especially heat stroke. In this episode we discuss the the spectrum of heat-related illnesses, risk factors, treatment and perhaps most importantl...

We've made tremendous progress in dealing with COVID-19 as hospitalization rates and death rates continue to decline. But be wary of the Delta Variant (B.1.617.2) which is gaining traction in the continental United States and is likely more contagious and potentially causes more severe disease than prior variants! In this episode of Health In Harlem we bring you important updates about the pandemi...

Man Up! This is a call to all men around the world to take charge of your health as you have never done before. We must get out and be active and get our heart rates up! We must eat those fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains and lean meats! Throw out the processed garbage (aka junk food)! We must engage those around us and build long-lasting meaningful relationships as this is crucial not...

June 12, 2021 is National Family Health and Fitness Day and the Health In Harlem Team is poised to help you make the most of it with solid information help you live the healthiest life possible.  Fit N Play Mama Founder, Nutritionist, and Personal Trainer, and Youth Fitness Instructor Danielle Medina joined us to share some of her best tips and tricks to encourage healthy living amongst your famil...

Saturday June 12, 2021 is National Family Health and Fitness Day! Sponsored by the National Recreation and Park Association, National Family Health and Fitness Day is a day to promote the importance of parks and recreation spaces in living happy, healthy and productive lifestyles. From Staten Island to Midtown Manhattan, there will be countless free and very-low cost events that will feature activ...

Harlem has a new batch of frontline heroes and heroines in the fight against COVID-19. The COVID-19 STEM Community Education and Empowerment Internship is a partnership between the Cornell Center for Health Equity and the Diversity Center for Excellence, Mentoring In Medicine Inc, 6 area medical schools that has harnessed the energy, talents, and enthusiasm of young people to distribute informatio...

The fight against SARS-CoV-2 continues and fortunately, here in the United States it's like we have a wave of reinforcements that can potentially join the fray as the Food and Drug Administration revised the Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to include adolescents ages 12-15 as eligible to receive the jab. The race continues to vaccinate as many people as possibl...

That's right ladies and gentlemen, this is our 6th COVID-19 vaccine update and we have some great new information for you all! With hospitalization rates and death rates amongst the most vulnerable (e.g. the elderly, nursing home residents) falling all over the country, it appears the vaccines are doing exactly what they were designed to do. There is even data emerging that highlights the effectiv...

“Black Women in our country are facing a Maternal Health Crisis.” This statement could have been a headline across any newspaper in the country (hopefully this is not news to anyone as Black women have been suffering for decades), however these are the words of Vice president Kamala Harris. On Tuesday April 13, the White House issued its first-ever presidential proclamation marking Black Maternal...

6 cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis out of 6.6 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines administered! Don't let fear speak for the numbers here as suffering the aforementioned complication is like getting tickets to a post-Covid Hamilton on Broadway special performance. It's too early to say whether the vaccines caused those blood clots and even if the vaccine is deemed the cause, this would be...

While colon cancer is among the most preventable and treatable cancers and there has been a sustained increase in the number of young, previously healthy people being diagnosed with this disease. In this episode of Health In Harlem we turned to the experts, Dr. Fiyinfolu Balogun and Dr. Onyinye Balogun and Nicole Basabe of the Partnership Community Outreach, Research and Education (PCORE, a partne...

I think we all at one point thought that the extent of poor dental health was an unsightly smile, but more and more, researchers are finding real links to oral health and our overall health and  well-being. We sat down with Dr. Latoya Joseph, owner of Sebastian Dental Spa Oral Health and Wellness Center and her husband, Dental Student Steve Joseph to talk about oral health how impacts the rest of...

With the February 27, 2021 Emergency Use Authorization of the Janssen Biotech Inc. (a Jannsen Pharmaceutical Company of Johnson & Johnson) Covid-19 Vaccine and President Biden talking about the possibility of getting "together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue (to) celebrate Independence Day", there are many reasons to be optimistic these days. However, the...

Long before COVID-19, Cardiovascular disease reigned supreme as the number one cause of death worldwide (this is still the case). This pandemic has killed millions on a global scale year-after-year (18.6 million in 2019 alone), but headlines detailing the devastation are few and far between. This week, the Health In Harlem team sat down to discuss different types of heart disease and its relation...

Aside from rising death rates and significant economic effects, the COVID-19 pandemic is profoundly impacting the mental health of children worldwide. The social isolation and loneliness that arises from COVID-19 containment measures coupled with the uncertainty surrounding many aspects of the COVID-19 crisis have led to large increases in the prevalence of anxiety, mood disorders, and suicide in...

With the COVID-19 vaccine distribution broadening (including people 65 years and older, essential workers, and people with certain comorbid illnesses), more and more racial and ethnic minorities are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Unfortunately, as of February 4 only 49% of blacks planned to get vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, (the virus that causes COVID-19), with only 19% agreeing to th...

January was Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, and though it is now January, we could not pass up the opportunity to talk about this wholly preventable cancer. In this episode, we sat down with Dr. Sharan Abdul-Rahman, an OB/GYN and the Founder of the The Black Woman's Health Directory, a directory that lists black male and female healthcare providers including physicians, therapists, and even midwi...

More than 3 million people in the United States have glaucoma and according to the National Eye Institute that number will balloon to more than 4.2 million people by 2030. In African Americans it is the second-leading cause of blindness. Perhaps even more distressing is the fact that many people with this disease have little to no symptoms until it's too late; when their vision is severely comprom...

According to the Pew Research Center, one-third to one-half of Americans make resolutions each year. Despite a desire to make important and often healthy changes in their lives, millions of people barely make it past the first month of the year before they abandon their new diets, exercise routines, and budgets. If the vast majority of us are destined to fail, then why make resolutions at all? In...

BNT162b2 by Pfizer/BioNTech and mRNA1273 by Moderna are vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 that have been granted emergency use authorization by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Besides the efficacy and effectiveness of these vaccines, one of the major questions everyone is asking is whether or not these vaccines are safe. Dr. Stephen J. Thomas of SUNY Upstate University sat down to answer...

According to Barry A. Franklin, PhD and Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH in an article that appeared in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, "there was a 64% decrease in the risk of heart disease from the least to the most aerobically fit and a 30% decrease from the least to the most physically active." Heart disease is the leading killer of people in the United States and the world (with stroke not far behin...

It's official, on December 11, 2020 BNT162b2, aka the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 received Emergency Use Authorization by the United States Food and Drug Administration. As the first vaccine against the coronavirus approved for use in the United States, its acceptance amongst the general public will be critical in curbing spread of the virus and ending the pandemic as we know it. Is...

It's the most wonderful time of the year! And it's also the time where fire emergencies and burn injuries increase. In this episode of Health In Harlem, we invited one of New York's Bravest, Lieutenant John Leary of Ladder 15 of the FDNY to discuss the things you can do to safeguard your home and family when it comes to fire awareness and prevention this Holiday season. As always, we wish you the...

The link between gratefulness and good health is real and intriguing. Over the last two decades, there have been countless studies demonstrating the power that being grateful can have in our lives, from boosting our spirits and decreasing rates of depression and anxiety, improving sleep duration and quality, to physical benefits and overall increases in well-being and quality of life. Being gratef...

This week it's battle of the nerds! No, this has nothing to do with the 1980s classic, nor Comic Con, and certainly nothing to do with dissecting the themes and allegorical significance of Game of Thrones. This is a battle about life and death (and essentially everything in between. In this episode, we discuss the public statements put forth by two groups of scientists and public health profession...