Daily Headlines: May 8, 2015

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff claimed that Brazil is “tirelessly seeking a solution to (Venezuela's) political crisis”, while the Brazilian Senate approved a resolution condemning the “arbitrary detention” of Venezuelan opposition activists.

* Argentina: The government rejected reports claiming that Belgian officials seized two Argentine embassy bank accounts at the behest of hedge fund creditor.

* U.S.: A new study on the health of Latinos in the U.S. concluded that the “Hispanic paradox” exists though results vary by subgroup.

* Mexico: Police rescued 103 migrants from Central America, Sri Lanka and India held hostage in Mexico by a human smuggling gang.

YouTube Source – Venevision (Mitzy de Ledezma, the wife of imprisoned Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, met with former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso on May 5th).

Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Reuters, Buenos Aires Herald, Fusion, UPI

Daily Headlines: October 10, 2011

* U.S.: Could smoking help explain the health phenomena known as the “Hispanic paradox”?

* Latin America: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas arrived in Colombia as he continued his Latin America tour seeking support for his government's bid to win a place at the U.N.

* Mexico: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder may soon receive a Congressional subpoena to testify over a failed gun surveillance program know as “Operation Fast and Furious”.

* Argentina: Despite taking an early lead and putting up a good fight Argentina was eliminated from the Rugby World Cup after losing to host team and heavy favorites New Zealand.

* Paraguay: Preliminary results indicated that most voters backed a constitutional amendment that would permit Paraguayans residing abroad the right to vote in general elections.

* South America: Qualifying matches for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil began last week and included an easy win for Uruguay over Bolivia and a surprising victory for Peru at home against Paraguay.

Video Source – Via YouTube user unnaturalcausesdoc (“Two researchers present findings related to the "Latino paradox," the fact that new Latino immigrants, despite having on average lower incomes and highly stressful lives, suffer lower rates of chronic and mental illness than the average native-born American.”)

Online Sources – The Latin Americanist, Colombia Reports, MSNBC, CNN, Soccer by Ives, The Guardian, Scientific American

Study may prove Hispanic health “paradox”

A report published today on health care in the U.S. appears to confirm an interesting phenomenon known as the “Hispanic paradox”.

The study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) found that life expectancy in the U.S. varies significantly from county to county. In the case of Los Angeles County in California, that area has one of the highest life expectancies in the country despite a poverty rate above the national average. Researchers believe that the reason for this could be the “Hispanic paradox”, a phenomena found in previous studies over the past several decades including a 2010 Centers for Disease Control report. The idea is that Latinos live longer than those in other ethnic categories despite facing adverse socioeconomic factors (e.g. lower education, high indices of diabetes and obesity).

According to the Los Angeles Times there are several possibilities explaining how the paradox can be seen in the IHME study:

Nearly half of Los Angeles County's 10 million residents are Latino, and more than a third are foreign born, according to census data. By contrast, less than a sixth of the population nationally is Latino, and less than an eighth is foreign born.



One explanation of that phenomenon is that the people who become immigrants tend to be healthy. "These are not random people. They are the healthiest people who could get here," said Carmen Nevarez, former president of the American Public Health Assn.



But David Hayes-Bautista, who heads the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA, said other factors, including social support networks, diet and even physical labor, may play a role as well, because not all immigrants have such good health outcomes as Latinos.

People in several developing countries have more longevity than some U.S. counties based on the report. Women in five Mississippi counties have life expectancies below 74.5 years, which is lower than Honduras, El Salvador, and Peru.

Image- NOLA.com
Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, ABC News, Wikipedia, HispanicBusiness.com, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation