Holloway: Good evening. I'm Jay Holloway and this is Black Issues Forum. It's a new weekly version of a program that many of you may have followed over the past 10 years. We'll be here every Friday night at 11 o'clock on UNC-TV. We'll provide analysis, ask some of the hard questions, take you to the important events in our state, and give you statistics and suggestions on how to get more information and how to get involved in the topic.

The program tonight is part 4 of a 13-part series. And we hope it will help you discuss serious issues like this and others with your family, civic and community groups, and most importantly, in the classroom. The program is not only for blacks but it's to encourage an increased understanding among racial lines. So we'd like to hear from you about your suggestions and comments on helping to make this program the best it can be because it's here for you. You can call us at 919-549-7167 or write to Bla ck Issues Forum, P.O. Box 14900, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709.

In this evening's program we'll explore the whole health care dilemma: its affordability, access, the traditional and the recent alternative complementary methods, and how prevention can provide power for you.

Now let's move to our discussion with our studio guests. Dr. Allen Mask is a medical doctor in private practice and known in the Raleigh-Durham market as the TV doctor on one of the local commercial television stations. Muriel J. Love is of the Health and Wellness Center. Naturally she specializes in alternative complementary medicine. She's a registered nurse and has been the hostess of her own radio and television programs in Raleigh and Washington, DC. And Phillip Smith. He's project coordinator of New Hope Community Health Center, Inc. And he's joining us tonight from Asheville. He also is the former publisher of African-American News which is published monthly in Asheville.

Well, let's start right with our discussion today. Thank you all for being here today. And thank you, Phillip, for joining us in Asheville.

I'd like to start, first of all, with the whole aspect of health care in terms of African-Americans. Are African-Americans more disproportionately affected by these health care crises? More sick? More prone to sickness? More prone to health problems? Why is this such a tough issue in the African-American community? And we're going to open it up. So Phillip, feel free to jump in, Muriel or Allen.

Mask: Also with the issue of access, we've always had difficulty getting through the gate and, with the medicine being the way it is now being reorganized, I think it's more of a problem for us now than it was at previous times. I think, however, patients are taking more of their health care into their own hands through programs like this one, learning more about themselves, empowering themselves and making better decisions. And so while access is not what it used to be, we are taking more resp onsibility for our health.

Love: And I would say the same thing because today as we look around and see what's happening within our community and see the still high numbers statistically in relationship to the most common diseases that are out there that really truly affect our community, I feel that, as Dr. Mask said, we are beginning to empower ourselves through shows like this. And I feel that this is one of the best things that could happen for the African-American community as well as all communities out there.

Holloway: Now Phillip, you are starting something special in Asheville in terms of access. And tell us about that. What have you found are the access issues and what are you trying to do there in Asheville?

Smith: One of the problems that we have faced here in Asheville as well as many other cities across the nation is that, of course education is most important. But besides education, we want people to take more responsibility for their health care. And yes, there is a problem with accessing health care services, especially for the low, no income people, the medically underserved. And so we at New Hope realize the dilemma and so therefore we established a community health care center in a black neighborhood because we realized that transportation plays a major part in people coming to health facilities. And then at the same time, when you go the traditional health providers, a lot of times the traditional health providers do not understand the need of the medically underserved people. And so we want to reach out to them. Not only do we want to provide or to improve access to health care but we also want to give them quality health care services.

Holloway: Well, Dr. Mask, how do you deal with that in its traditional approach.

Mask: Well, prevention is quite important, Jay. We are emphasizing that more now and it may be a benefit that we won't realize tomorrow or the next day but I think we will see it further down the road. I think that the program that Phillip has is an excellent one because you can talk one-on-one with people about issues like diet. We can talk about coming to get your blood pressure checked but also telling you about resources that you may be able to access on Saturdays or Sundays to have your b lood pressure checked. And even situations where patients are buying blood pressure kits and maybe sharing them in several homes where there's not that sort of one or twice a year visit to the doctor but sort of an ongoing program.

And so with the changes we are seeing in health care - we talked about a decrease n access - but I think as more and more there's emphasis on prevention, there are ways that we can manipulate that positively in our communities.

Holloway: Muriel, you are in the community and you've had an opportunity to really stay in tune with folks through your programs. Do you see that we in the African-American community are more prone to these sicknesses and need more information like this on how to stay healthy and well?

Love: Well, Jay, one of the things - as you know, I've been working at that a long time. And I feel that the people are there. They want to do it but so many times they don't have the support system to carry through with them. And I find that a lot of people are interested in taking their, as they say, their life in their own hands and beginning to use some of the alternative health practices. But many times in doing so they don't have the support of their families. And as a result it really creates a real big problem because you do have to have a support system working with you.

When we think about taking our life in our own hands, all I'm talking about is really reevaluating our dietary habits, our dietary laws, our way of really looking at ourselves and going back to what I call the ways of our ancient forefathers, because we used to be able to selectively take in the quality foods by preparing our own foods. But we've become such a fast food world today that everything is microwaved or instant. And so to take time and to really prepare foods for yourself today, people just on't want to do it. And I find that that's really one of the main problems. You know, I believe in juicing. I believe in that because I too at one time had become a patient and I was diagnosed with some diagnoses which they told me my life expectancy was about 36. And that time I was approaching my 36th birthday. And it wasn't a very exciting time to think like that. But I began to recognize that what we did at that time, which has begun to change in the health profession, is that we began to teach p eople how to depend upon us, not so much how to be independent of us.

And so I basically have seen a major change in the last almost 30 years in that respect, where people are beginning to take a more opportune time in using the prevention, remembering the ways of their grandmothers going out and selecting picking certain herbs. There are some herbs that grow naturally around us that we just take weed killer and kill it that we could use that could really actually help us.

Holloway: Well let me ask Phillip Smith and then back to Dr. Mask, when we look at this health and wellness naturally prevention methods, what you see in Asheville and right in the community of the access being a problem, and then the traditional problem, Dr. Mask, how - are these three different approaches in conflict with each other or how do they work together?

Smith: Well myself, how I feel about it, no, I think they're in total agreement. Because there has been times where the traditional medicine physicians who were prescribing medication really didn't resolve the problem, medical problem. And when the next step went to the alternative medicine, you saw some results, and I feel that there is a complement of all those three factors to help get people well. And so with alternative medicine, it plays a very key part.

Holloway: What do you think Dr. Mask?

Mask: I agree as well. I think that we've sort of come full circle now in terms of our approach to that. If you'd asked me that a few years ago I'm not so sure that my answer would have been the same one. But the holistic approach to medicine, I think, is a good one. I think there needs to be some balance. We as Americans want it all. We want to have lots of latitude to try different approaches and ideas but at the same time we want the safety factor as well. That comes into play often tim es with my patients when they call me and they ask about melatonin and a lot of herbs and things that are available over the counter in various drug stores and health food stores and so forth.

I try to find some middle ground. First of all not doing any harm, but also giving them the opportunity to try some things that may be effective.

Holloway: Is it possible, then, in terms of a paradigm of looking at being - I guess there are two ways to look at it: you're going to be sick so when you come to see the traditional doctor I'll take care of you, or you don't have to be sick because you can prevent this.

Love: And you don't have to be sick when you go to the traditional doctor either. Because really and truly we've kind of got it wrong. That's when we really go to the doctor. But that doctor also is a form of prevention and maintenance for us. But we don't tend to use the doctor like that. We tend to wait till we get in a true crisis and then we run to him and expect him to perform a miracle.

And I must say that I was a product of all three of these at one time back there in the seventies when I tried coming from what I call the true tradition medicine, that I had been trained in as a nurse for many years and had worked at that time about 16 years - thought I knew a little bit about health and then I became a patient. And my friend Dick Gregory knew I hadn't been feeling well. He says, "I think I know where you need to go." And he took me to see this woman he had been going to for like a l ong time and she had been in the field that I'm in today for over 40 years. And when she began to break the body down it made me look at it a whole other way and that's when I began to understand how we could really complement all that together. So, I've worked in the last twenty some odd years - bringing that in a complementary synergistic way.

Because I believe it's all perfect - I thank God that I have the training that I have. And like Dr. Mask, the training that he has. Because that's afforded me to be an even better holistic alternative practitioner. Now, I do say that there are some people out there that you have to be very selective in who you go to. But I thank God that I have that background that allows me to make that choice so that I can understand better what is happening in taking in the alternative that I do today and using it .

Mask: And I've got some good news. I'm happy to report that I'm seeing my patients, particularly my African American male patients who are coming in to have periodic exams, are coming in and asking about getting that annual prostate exam. They're coming in talking about being more careful about what they eat, about salt restriction or about limiting the amount of fat in their diets. And really I've noticed that over the last few months that this kind of information is getting out and people are coming in.

We're emphasizing now more the concept of the periodic exam. Instead of doing the laying on the hands, we sit down with patients and talk about the evils of cigarette smoking, we spend some time talking about baking and broiling foods rather than frying foods. We talk about the importance of, yeah you're on the blood pressure medicine, but are you taking the medication and creating some way that can assure they take their medication on a regular basis?

Or checking their vision. I see so many teen-agers who come in and want to play sports and so forth and their vision is bad. So what is more unsafe than a fast ball coming at you at 100 miles per hour that you can't see. So we're making sure that these kids who come in who are feeling pretty good are actually able to go out and get their eyes examined. It happened to my own son. He's eight years old, he's a good tennis player at eight years old, and we discovered that his vision is not good. So, wi th some glasses or corrective lenses, we expected him to be a whole lot better. So that hits home as well.

Holloway: Phillip, do you all do that kind of thing? Are those in your plans to do those things with your community persons in Asheville?

Smith: Yes. Our plans are to do a full scale clinic and provide full scale services. But I want to add something else, too. We strongly believe that healthy people make healthy families. And people with healthy minds, bodies and spirits are much more productive and responsible citizens. And thus, people with good health and a good outlook are more likely to maintain jobs and less likely to be a drain on the community's tax base. So it's a win-win situation. We realize that good health has its assets and its benefits and everybody wins.

Holloway: Well let's talk about some of those good health practices now. You touched on some, Dr. Mask. I know I'm on the state's advisory committee with American Cancer Society on prostate cancer awareness. So I know actually the month of September is actually prostate cancer awareness, specifically a week. But that's one that I know in North Carolina African American males have the highest death rate. Actually, in the country and some people say even the world.

Mask: That's precisely correct. We have more prostate cancer. We do get it, we have a more aggressive form of that cancer as well. The American Cancer Society is recommending that all males have their prostate glands examined and to have this test called a prostate specific anagen and a PSA and blood test done once a year after the age of 50. But African American males, this is very important, they should get this exam every year after the year of 40, not 50, but the age of 40.

So you come in, it's not a difficult exam, it takes just a few minutes to do. It's not as uncomfortable as everybody would want you to believe it is. It takes all of 15 seconds to complete the exam. There's a small amount of blood that we'll take as well, and this is a wonderful opportunity to remind all of our viewers, the male viewers, both African American and otherwise, that they've got to go for these routine exams and have their prostate glands checked. Again, African Americans, after the age o f 40, and all others after the age of 50 on a regular basis.

Holloway: And as Phillip mentioned, it's a healthy family. So that means the wives and the sons and the daughters, say to your brothers, uncles and fathers, if they're over that age, to do that. Muriel, what in your alternative approaches, what can people do to prevent that?

Love: Well -

Holloway: You knew I was going to ask that.

Love: You know I was waiting on that question, too, because one of the things that I have specialized in for the last twenty years, after I became a patient and began to see, as I specialized in the area of the colon. And the one thing that I know is one of the best ways of prevention for any disease is through keeping a healthy colon. And so from that standpoint, not only ingesting foods, but in cleansing the colon periodically. And if we go through the ways of our ancient forefathers, our gr andmothers used to always give us a good cleansing every spring and every fall, but we've kind of gotten away from that, and one of the best ways of keeping a healthy prostate is to make sure that you keep the pressure off of that area.

And so from that standpoint, one of the things that I do, which is one of the best things - and my teacher who lived to be way up into almost 100 said that the best thing a man could do is to have his system flushed out periodically so he would keep a healthy prostate because that water flushing across that colon helps in that preventive way. So from that standpoint, I recommend highly that a person pays attention to that area from the standpoint of the amount of stress and pressure.

Most of us walk around with 15 to 25 pounds or more of excess and we think this is our abdomens and it isn't our abdomens, it's our colon that we have sitting out there. So, from that standpoint, I highly suggest that - you know, when people ask me about it and they say - and men, for whatever reason are not really readily wanting to do that. More and more are, but women are used to having examinations and they're used to having certain procedures done to them and so they're much more amenable to going and having it done than, say the men. Unless they were raised by a mother who was very conscious in that area and did that on them as a child.

I recommend highly castor oil packs. We used to ingest the castor oil by mouth and everybody remembers that. I don't ingest it. I recommend it on the external. So we just take a piece of wool or cotton flannel, soak it in warm castor oil, place it over our abdomens, put a piece of plastic on top, then a towel, then a heating pad and leave that on for about an hour or hour and a half. And do that once or twice a week and begin to keep that stress off that prostate and other areas of the body, the oth er organs that are affected by that. And so from that standpoint, that's my means of aiding and helping someone who does have a problem.

And I have worked with gentlemen who have been challenged by prostate problems. There was one where the doctors wanted to do chemotherapy and other things because they showed signs of having cancer in the prostate and we went the alternative way, through nutrition and through cleansing of the bowel and I can say today they still have not had to have that surgery. But it is a step that someone has to take and it's a might step, you know. Because most of us don't want to pay attention.

Holloway: Well, let me ask Phillip and Alan to comment on that in terms of, what can you can about prevention or what do you say to a community of folks about - and I know there's not a whole lot of research, but I know that if you have that in your family you're more likely to get it. Any comments?

Mask: Well, the family history of course is very, very important as far as guiding what sort of exams we get and what sort of routine we go through. And of course this information is very important for me when I see a patient in terms of making those determinations.

I think, perhaps, it can be a partnership between those of us in the medical field and in holistic medicine to understand these issues. In some instances, there is some support that could be given by holistic medicine. If somebody has got prostate cancer, of course, I subscribe to a more traditional approach in terms of surgery and so forth, but I think we can all have some dialogue. Because what I realize in my practice is that patients are talking to their families and to other practitioners and get ting lots of different opinions and I just want to be a part of that process. The patient, of course, has to be the number one decision maker, though.

Holloway: Phillip?

Smith: Yes. I think, also, our lifestyle - how the individual client or patient is living, what they do in their daily life is important. Education, once again, is important because you need to educate people in regards to diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS. These type of diseases play a major, devastating impact in our life. I mean, these are some deadly diseases and many of them are salient killers. We walk around not realizing that we're walking around and in one second we can be dead. But, education and getting people to realize the importance of having annual health check ups is vital.

Mask: It's a simple concept as well. But my feeling is that even during this program, if we can have one person to stop smoking cigarettes, we can get another group of people to stop eating so much fried foods, and to just bake and broil their food. We can get one person to come in - we say women between the age of 35-40 should have a mammogram from 40-50, a mammogram every other year, age 50 on a mammogram every year. And also to do a self breast exam every year.

These programs are worthwhile if we can just convince someone to do it. They're simple concepts that they're hearing from different avenues and so forth. But that's really what we need to do. We interviewed Dr. Sydney Smith, chief of cardiology at UNC for a television program that I was working with at Channel 5 and we were talking about complicated coronary artery bypass grabs but then he made the point that we can prevent all this complicated surgery and hospitalization if people would not smoke or t ake care of their blood pressure, and stop eating so heavy and fat. So those are some basic concepts we'd like to get across today.

Love: And you know, Jay, that's one of the things that I have come to understand that really everything continues to be hereditary until someone in that family decides to make a change. And through our dietary habits is one of the best ways that we can begin to alter that. And when we begin to really look at what we take into our - all we have to do is go look in there - how many live foods - we are a live body, so we must take in live foods. And the more dead, decayed foods we take in, the more foods we cook, the less live foods we're taking in. And so as a result, from the regenerative process, whatever organ is diseased has no opportunity to be regenerated.

And so from that standpoint, that's how I work. When clients come into my office - and by the way, I have a very small little mighty business as I call it, but I say that today is the first day of your life for the rest of your life. When you cross through this threshold, no matter what disease you had before you came in, unless you want to carry it with you, you've left it on the other side. Because I only look at the body from a perfect whole standpoint. And from that standpoint all we're doing is what we call regenerating, tuning that body up and getting it ready for moving into a new millennium. And that's what we have to be aware of. We cannot carry around all this excess weight. We cannot carry around all these excess toxins that we have.

And all you have to do is go to the mirror every morning, take a good look at yourself and say, "Hey Girl," or "Hey guy, what's going on here? Do you look like the total picture of health? What is happening with you?" And I feel that this is what all three of us are really saying here in our own way. We have to be aware, the foods, the way we prepare it, and whether or not we are actually remembering that in order to have the enzymes to actively work in our system, we've got to take them in in anothe r form, and dead decayed foods just won't do it.

Holloway: Phillips, any quick comments? We're about to wrap up now in less than thirty seconds.

Smith: Well, I think education's important. Community outreach is very important. Also, letting the viewers know that having standard medical examinations are real important.

Holloway: How about it, Alan?

Mask: Check your blood pressure. Check it today. Everybody who's listening to us - you know, perhaps they've been to the doctor or have not been to the doctor recently, do that one thing. It will make a difference.

Love: And drink plenty of water with fresh lemon juice.

Holloway: Muriel, Phillip and Alan, thank you all so very much.

Love: Thank you.

Mask: Thank you.

Smith: Thank you.

Holloway: Our discussion should leave you, the viewer, with two clear choices. One choice, tradition, puts health in the hands of the system and makes access to the system a critical issue. The other choice, a new perspective, elevates the nutrition above tradition and makes understanding health and wellness a personal and cultural imperative. The decision is yours. The struggle for better health care after you're sick? Or the power of prevention before you're sick?

We encourage you to continue to discuss these important issues facing the African American family. Hopefully you're more informed about how to better prevent illness and have learned some new tips or better nutrition issues and how to better access affordable health care. Thank you for watching another episode of Black Issues Forum. Join us next Friday evening at 11:00 when we'll discuss how you can use social events to better build successful networks. I'm Jay Holloway. Have a blest and peaceful ev ening. Good night.