CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Black History Month also happens to be American Heart Month. One black business-owner is working to bring attention to heart health in his community.
Medical experts said certain health conditions are more prevalent in the black community, stressing the importance of health education to overcome them.
"Just because your family has a history of diabetes doesn't mean you have to be the next one in line," said Clifton Pope, founder and CEO of Health Fitness Wealth Business. "It starts with you."
Pope started his business in 2018. The company provides online and in-person coaching for fitness and financial literacy. He said improving the health issues he sees in his community, like obesity and diabetes, comes down to three things.
"All it takes is just eating right, exercise, and getting the proper amount of sleep," Pope said. "That's one of the things that my dad has stressed to me ever since I was a kid and that's one of the main reasons why I kind of started Health Fitness Wealth Business, just to give friendly reminders of those three things."
TAMU-CC associate professor Elizabeth Loika is a family nurse practitioner. She teaches students how to address health issues in different communities through clinical practice. She said the black community has a higher risk of heart disease and related illnesses.
"With the heart disease you have the higher blood pressure," Loika said. "With the diabetic disease, you have nerve damage, and so therefore the two, when it affects the heart, can be quite destructive."
Loika said people can live with heart disease, but must be treated with ongoing quality care. For anyone feeling like it is too late to make a change, she said even people over the age of 50 can live a healthy life with proper treatment.
"To acknowledge that this is something you need to do to yourself, but also to reach out to your federally qualified health centers and to get yourself on-board," Loika said.
Lack of financial resources and access to health services is something both Pope and Loika said adds to the challenge of overcoming illness. But Pope said he hopes his coaching will go a long way in that effort.
"It just goes back to just lack of guidance and I just want to be that guide for the black community to help get them back on track and let them know, hey, it's ok, we got this," Pope said.
Pope said acts of kindness can go a long way towards keeping you happy and healthy too. He is working to become a personal trainer to help his community find resources to improve physical and mental health.