Special to The T&D The Times and Democrat | Posted: Friday, March 16, 2012 2:00 am |
S.C. States Brooks Health Centers annual Minority Community Health Summit on Saturday, March 24, will feature Dr. Ian Smith, a weight loss guru who is the host of his own nationally syndicated radio show, HealthWatch.
The theme of this years summit is: It takes a Village to Fight Health Disparities: Believe in a Healthy Blood Pressure. It will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first floor of M. Maceo Nance Jr. Hall on the university campus. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
According to http://www.cdc.govhttp://www.cdc.gov>, the top 10 health disparities that affect minorities are: heart disease; cancer; stroke; diabetes; unintentional injury; homicide; chronic lower respiratory disease; HIV/AIDS); nephritis, an inflammation of the kidney; and septicemia, a multiplication of the bacteria in the bloodstream producing a powerful toxin.
The summit will address some of those health challenges and examine current efforts to improve access to quality health care in the Orangeburg area.
Pinkey Carter, director of the Brooks Health Center, said the mission of the summit is to educate our students and the local community so that we can fight health disparities among our campus community.
Throughout the Minority Community Health Summit, an array of health disparity workshops will take place, such as: Diabetes: Its More than Sugar, Lets Get Moving, Lips, Hips and Fingertips: You are what you eat, Basic HIV 101: Understanding and protecting yourself and Believe in a Healthy Blood Pressure.
Smith will be the speaker for the summit. He has served as the medical/diet expert for six seasons on VH1s highly-rated Celebrity Fit Club, the creator and founder of the 50 Million Pound Challenge and the Makeover Mile, and as medical contributor on the nationally syndicated television show, Rachael Ray. Smith is also the host of HealthWatch on American Urban Radio Networks. He is the former medical correspondent for NBC News and for News Channel 4 where he filed reports for NBCs Nightly News and the Today show as well as WNBCs news broadcasts. Smith has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, The Tyra Banks Show, Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper 360 and Showbiz Tonight.
He was recently appointed by President Obama to the Presidents Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. He has also written for various publications, including Time, Newsweek, Mens Health and the New York Daily News, and has been featured in publications including People, Essence, Ebony, University of Chicago Medicine on the Midway, Cosmopolitan and Black Enterprise.
Smiths work has been honored by several organizations, such as the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, for his coverage on the momentous events on Sept. 11, 2001. He is very active in charitable causes, currently a national advisory board member for The Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity. He has also served on the boards of the American Council on Exercise, the New York Mission Society, the Prevent Cancer Foundation and the New York Council for the Humanities.
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Weight loss guru to speak at SCSU March 24
