Archive for June 2022

Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible, despite their cultural or demographic background. But achieving this means removing obstacles to health, such as discrimination, economic disadvantages, and lack of access for certain populations and communities.
Today’s guest Omatola Gordon-Rose, Senior Director of Health Equity Initiatives at Komen, understands how multiple barriers combine to create breast health inequities in the black community, and is here to share how the program Stand for H.E.R. A health equity revolution addresses these inequities through several tailored interventions. Omatola, welcome to the show.

A breast cancer diagnosis can often make it feel as if you have lost control. You may want to troubleshoot it, to find the root cause and implement a solution. Today’s guest was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2019, two days before she ran the Boston Marathon. She tried to outrun the process because she was scared to sit idle and lose. But as she discovered, sometimes there is no root cause or viable fix and you have no option but to hope, be patient and trust in the process. Here to share her story and what she learned about herself along the way is Jennifer Sinkwitts.

When today’s guest was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer that had spread throughout her skeletal system, her daughters were ages 2, 4 and 6 and she knew that her children would never have a memory of her without cancer being in it. She decided immediately that she needed to be intentional about how she used living with cancer as a tool to help shape them. Here today to share how she focuses on protecting her bones, living her healthiest life and giving others the tools to do the same is Lauren Huffmaster. Lauren, welcome to the show!

Dr. Jennifer Ligibel is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Senior Physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is also the Director of the Leonard P. ZAkim Center for Integrative Therapies and Healthy Living and the Director of the Center for Faculty Well-Being at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She joins us today to discuss the impact of lifestyle factors, such as physical activity and nutrition, on breast and bone health and how the decisions that we make may affect our long term health and quality of life. Dr. Ligibel, welcome to the show!