Seven years ago, on July 8, 2003, I wrote that a dear friend of my family had died from complications arising from his battle with diabetes.

He joined a growing list of Americans who are dying much too soon after spending their lives in the everyday struggle for dignity and a fair chance to provide for their families. It seems so unfair that they, who worked so hard to pave the way, have to leave so soon, not having the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labors.

We were particularly saddened to realize that his death could have been avoided had he changed his lifestyle; he did not know that he was slowly killing himself and sadly no one bothered to tell him.

Now, seven years later we as a nation are less healthy than we were when I wrote about it, and apparently less willing to confront the real health care crisis, much of which we have brought onto ourselves, leaving the bulk of the solution to Congress instead of changing our lifestyles and caring for each other.

The recent unexpected passing of so many famous people should serve to remind us that, for every one of them who died, there are thousands of others whose names we will not so easily remember.

A startling report released last month by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation available online at countyhealthrankings.org/new-york/niagara seems to indicate that our national health is in worse shape than it was when I wrote about it seven years ago, with Niagara County now ranked number 57 out of the 62 counties that comprise the state of New York; that is only five from the bottom of the list for those of you who may have dozed off in math class here, or dropped out of school all together, which in some of our communities in Niagara County is more likely than not.

Using the most recent data available to me at the time I wrote about the relative health disparities between African Americans and the U.S. population as a whole.

The 1999 report showed that African American women were less likely to receive care and when they did receive it, were more likely to have received it late. For example, one out of four African-American mothers did not receive prenatal care during the first trimester during 1999.

Other findings of the report:

• Obesity is a risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Approximately 69 percent of African American women between the ages of 20 and 74 were overweight during the period 1988 through 1994.

• Diabetes — In 1999, 11,927 African Americans died from diabetes, the sixth leading cause of death for this population. The African American death rate due to diabetes was more than twice that for whites, when differences in age distribution were taken into account. In addition to the deaths it causes, diabetes may result in serious complications, including kidney disease, blindness and amputations.

• Heart Disease — In 1999, 78,574 African Americans died from heart disease, the leading cause of death for all racial and ethnic groups. African Americans were 30 percent more likely to die of heart disease than whites when differences in age distributions were taken into account.

• Cancer — In 1999, 61,951 African Americans died from cancer, the second leading cause of death for all racial and ethnic groups. In 1999, African Americans were 30 percent more likely to die of cancer than whites when differences in age distributions were taken into account.

• Infant Mortality — Infant mortality rates are more than twice as high for African-Americans (14.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 1999) than for whites (5.8 infant deaths per 1,000 live births). 

• Stroke — In 1999, 18,884 African Americans died from stroke, the third leading cause of death for all racial and ethnic groups. African Americans were 40 percent more likely to die of stroke than whites in 1999, when differences in age distributions were taken into account.

• Immunizations — One out of four African American children aged 19-35 months did not receive recommended vaccinations in 1999. About 47 percent of elderly African Americans received the flu vaccine in 1998, compared with 66 percent of elderly whites. About 26 percent of elderly African Americans received a pneumonia vaccine in 1998, compared with 50 percent of elderly whites.

Mind you, I was looking at the racial disparities at the time.

The more recent Robert Woods Johnson report includes measures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Community Health Status Indicators which looks at everybody and it ranks Niagara County number five from the bottom — that’s all of us, white, black, brown, whatever.

As they point out, “The goal of Community Health Status Indicators is to provide an overview of key health indicators for local communities and to encourage dialogue about actions that can be taken to improve a community’s health. The report was designed not only for public health professionals but also for members of the community who are interested in the health of their community. The report contains over 200 measures for each of the 3,141 U.S. counties. Although the report presents indicators like deaths due to heart disease and cancer, it is imperative to understand that behavioral factors such as tobacco use, diet, physical activity, alcohol and drug use, sexual behavior and others substantially contribute to these deaths.”

Of course our contaminated environment and diseases we cannot avoid regardless of our behavior accounts for a big part of our problems as do the lack of sufficient access to care for the medically underserved, a rapidly growing number which has more to do with poverty than race at a time when our resources are depleting and the emergency rooms are taking the place of less expensive primary and preventive care.

Bottom line: We are not healthy, in large measure, we are doing it to ourselves and our failure to realize “what condition our condition is in,” is on a direct collision course with disaster right here at home and it is not likely that Albany or Washington will be able to bail us out of this one any time soon!

Contact Bill at bill.bradberry@yahoo.com.