When It Comes To Cancer, Prevention Is Key To Saving Lives

ESSENCE By Victoria Uwumarogie ·July 6, 2021July 6, 2021

Prevention is everything.

That was the message shared during “Beating The Odds Through Early Screening, Therapies & Life>Wellness House for ESSENCE Fest. Leading the important conversation was Doug E. Fresh, well-known human beatbox and health advocate. He spoke with the experts, Dr. Edith Peterson-Mitchell, Dr. Robert Winn, Kimberly Alexander and Winselow Tucker in order to inform the listening audience about the efforts necessary to beat the odds when dealing with a cancer diagnosis, and what can be done to avoid one all together.

When it comes to screening, why screening, bottom line is, when you look at African Americans, whether we’re talking about today multiple myeloma…breast cancer, you could put prostate cancer, you could put lung cancer…the number one people dying from it? African Americans,” said Dr. Winn.

He, along with many of the experts and pushed the importance of seeing health professionals when you’re not feeling your best so that anything that could be a detriment to your health can be caught before it advances.

“The only way to treat it is to A, catch it early. How do we catch it early? We screen.”

Loading the player…

So many great insights were shared, from Kimberly Alexander offering what she learned as a cancer caregiver when her husband, NFL player Elijah Alexander, battled with blood cancer to Dr. Mitchell explaining everything people need to know about multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, which African Americans die of twice and in some cases two and a half times more than other ethnic groups. It was certainly a wake-up call and a chat everyone needs to hear. Check it out for yourself and be sure to not only go for checkups and act early when things feel off, but also make the proper lifestyle changes so you can possibly keep things from ever taking a turn.

TOPICS: black health efoc essence fest essence festival 2021