Topic: Precision Medicine for African Americans
Menthol Cigarettes and Black & Milds: Why They Are So Dangerous for Black Americans
About 81% of Black smokers use menthol cigarettes, and Black & Milds and other flavored little cigars are marketed heavily in our neighborhoods. Dr. Hall explains the dangers and how precision medicine can help you quit.
Doxy-PEP: What Black Americans Should Know About the Antibiotic That Prevents STDs
Doxy-PEP, a dose of doxycycline after sex, can lower chlamydia and syphilis. Dr. Hall explains who should consider it, how to take it and its limits.
You Can Be Going Blind and Not Know It: Glaucoma in Black Americans
Glaucoma does not hurt. It does not blur your reading vision or make your eyes red. Most people who have it feel completely fine, until the day they notice they cannot see the car coming up beside them. By then,…
Not All Minorities Live Shorter Lives: What Life Expectancy Data Really Show
Asian and Hispanic Americans outlive white Americans, while Black Americans live about 4 years less. Dr. Hall explains why the word "minorities" hides this gap, and how precision medicine can help close it.
Black Doctors Choose Primary Care More, Earn Less, and Help Black Patients Live Longer
Black physicians are more likely than physicians of any other race or ethnicity to choose primary care. In Medscape’s 2018 physician compensation report, 40 percent of Black physicians practiced primary care, compared with 27 percent of white physicians. National data…
Black Men and Prostate Cancer: The Screening Conversation We Need to Have Earlier
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Black men, accounting for 44% of all new cancer diagnoses among them. According to the American Cancer Society, Black men are diagnosed with prostate cancer at a rate 67% higher than White…
Genetic Risk Isn’t Destiny for Black Americans. It’s a Target.
There is an understandable fear in medicine about linking genetics to the health of Black Americans. The worry goes like this: if we say Black people have an inherited risk for a disease, someone will conclude, “Well, that’s just how…
Black Women Are Three Times More Likely to Die During Pregnancy. Why?
In 2024, Black women in the United States died during pregnancy or within six weeks after at a rate of 44.8 per 100,000 live births. For White women, the rate was 14.2. That is about 3.2 times higher, and the…
African Americans and Mental Health: Lower Rates, Worse Outcomes
The Black mental health paradox By and large, African Americans report fewer depression and anxiety disorders than White Americans in national surveys. In the National Survey of American Life, about 10% of African Americans had experienced major depression in their…
Salt, Slavery, and the APOL1 Gene: The Kidney Story Our Ancestors Couldn’t Pass Down
Every Black patient I have ever cared for who developed chronic kidney disease carried the same earlier label on their chart: salt-sensitive hypertension. In African Americans, 75 percent of patients with high blood pressure are salt sensitive, compared to 50…
