While health conditions vary among individuals, Black men face unique health challenges that can impact their well-being and quality of life. In today’s episode, MetroHealth family medicine physician Dr. Wayne Forde identifies the most prominent health conditions that affect black men today and the importance of preventive care.
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Episode Transcript
What's up, folks. I'm Maddie Wills and welcome to another
episode of Be Well with Maddie Wills, brought to you
by the fine folks over at Metro Health. Today we'll
be talking to doctor Wayne Ford about health checks and
challenges for black men. First and foremost, doctor Ford, thank
you so much for taking some time out of.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Your day or You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
We appreciate having you. And before we kind of get
into this very important conversation, why don't you just tell
our viewers a little bit about your role with Metro
Health and how you got to this point.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So I'm a family physician and I've been working with
the residency here in family medicine. I was the medical
director for the medicine medical director for the medical practice
for the residents here on main campus for about twenty
years and been with Metro for twenty seven years. Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Good experience there. In today's topic a very important one.
I've already kind of joked around it. I'll be sending
this to a lot of my friends because we're all
getting older and we need this information. But let's just
kick it off with this one. Why is it especially
important for black men to be proactive about their health
and see a primary care provider regularly.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So often black men have neglected their health and in
doing that, they are kind of problems will sneak up
on them and they won't be taking care of the problems.
And they is shown by higher a lower life expectancy
and more morbid and immortality associated with those medical problems
(01:29):
that they have again don't know they have or are
finding late and later in life.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, is there a particular reason that you would normally
hear when they finally do or when we do finally
do come in and speak with you, or is it
like varying? Is it different with everybody?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's different. I think it's definitely a personal kind of
activity that they have to set up with a primary
care physician to find out problems that they might have.
But there are these common enough problems that are out
there that they again don't know about and often will
(02:09):
neglect mainly because of socioeconomic factors, inequities, the environmental issues.
We always always talk about the social determinants of health
that affect black people, black men.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Or Yeah, for sure, so you've probably heard people say
I feel fine, so I don't need to go to
the doctor. How do delayed checkups or missed screenings impact
long term health outcomes for black men?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So a lot of these problems that we do find
often are asymptomatic early on, and so if they don't
come in and don't get screen for them, they won't
find them at that time. Things like hypertension, diabetes, their
cancer screens, those types of things will often be asymptomatic
or what people will say they feel fine and won't
(02:56):
come in to get checked on those things.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yeah, so kind of plainly, you don't. If we don't
feel it, then we might not think it's a reason
to go talk to somebody about. But when you get
that kind of preventative care and you get those regular
checkups and you could find it early, could.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Find it early as well as I think setting up
a trusted relationship with your doctor is very important to
again to individualize that particular care. I think there are
cancer screens, there are lab tests that are often done,
cholesterol testing, those types of things that you talk with
your doctor about and see what fits you, what fits
(03:34):
your family history, those types of things.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, yeah, gotcha. What are some health conditions that disproportionately
affect black men and why is this population more prone
to these conditions?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I mentioned a few. It's hypertension, diabetes, heart disease. There
are certain cancers, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, those types of
things affect black men more. And again it's something that
they have to in and get checked on. And actually
when they go in, they should actually have some type
of idea of the things that are in the population
(04:10):
and to be looking for those things. And that's also
part of the checking on yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And then so I know we keep saying black men,
are there certain ages that you should say should come in,
especially if they haven't seen a doctor in a while.
Is there a certain age that you know you should say, Okay,
well I'm this old, so maybe I should go talk
to somebody just in general.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Sure, So I was mentioning the cancers. So certain cancer screenings,
things like prostate cancer, we start screening at around forty
or so, and then colon cancers we start screening at
forty five. And if it's in your family or family
history of such things like that, you may do it
a little sooner. As far as the hypertension, diabetes, heart disease,
you probably want to check on things in your twenties
(04:56):
young adults, to make sure you're doing the right thing,
not smoking alcohol, eating right, those types of things, to
limit those particular problems and to lessen the future of
those problems.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Got You, Got You? How does metro Health help to
spread awareness of these conditions?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So, metro Health has several outreach programs where they do
some community you work with, community groups, will work with
have fairs that they attend as well as UH there's
a newsletter and other ways in which they will go
(05:37):
out to the community and show people what those you
know can to try to get them to come in
to be examined.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Right. And I definitely can speak firsthand to the community outreach.
I've been a part of some of the more local
things that have gone on from metro Health, and you
always see a bunch of signage from metro Health throughout
the Greater Cleveland area of kind of encouraging exactly what
you're talking about. So don't wait for symptoms to appear
before taking your health seriously. A preventative visit with your
(06:08):
primary care provider is one of the most important steps
you can take to protect your long term health and
well being. Schedule an appointment with a primary care provider
today through my chart online at metrohealth dot org slash appointments,
or call two on six my Metro again. That's two
on six six nine six three eight seven six He's
(06:29):
doctor Wayne Ford. I'm Maddie Wills. Thank you so much
for your time.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You're welcome
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