Help us keep music alive by preventing death by lifestyle

After eleven years of providing comprehensive health services to New Orleans musicians and their families, we at the NOMC have realized that we must do more to prevent death by lifestyle. At the NOMC, the 3 most prevalent diagnoses amongst musicians are: Diabetes, Depression and Hypertension.

We hereby reach out to our musicians to help us do more than just treat the problem. Let’s work together to prevent it in the first place, and change the outcome!

Our 1st endeavor is a health fair at the Musicians’ Union and our NOMC Red Beans and Blues concert at the Howlin’ Wolf on June 7.

The health fair will be held at the Musicians’ Union at 2401 Esplanade Ave. from 12:00p.m. To 5:00p.m. The concert, featuring local blues legend Marva Wright, will take place from 5:30-7:30pm at the Howlin’ Wolf, 907 S. Peters St.

Our goal is to collaborate with musicians, their friends, families and fans to improve the health care outcomes of all New Orleanians. It is going to be a challenge, but it is crucial if we are to keep the music alive!

Please, let’s change the staggering impact of diabetes on our culture:

• 7 out of every 100 adults in Louisiana has diabetes, ranking the state 10th highest in the nation for the ratio of people with diabetes in the general population.(Louisiana Health Stats)
• Approximately 42 out of every 100,000 adult deaths in Louisiana are due to diabetes, making LA the #1 state with highest rate of deaths from diabetes. (Louisiana Health Stats)
• In 2005, 269,000 adults in Louisiana were diagnosed with diabetes and by 2007, 10% of the total adult population had been diagnosed with diabetes. Another 1% of Louisianans have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. . (Louisiana Health Stats)
• African Americans comprise nearly 32% of Louisiana’s population, but possess the highest diabetes prevalence rate and highest diabetes death rate. . (Louisiana Health Stats)
• African Americans have the highest prevalence of diabetes, with a 13.7% diagnosis rate, compared to 8.2% of Hispanics and 8.9% of the white population.(Center for Disease Control: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System).

Over the past 12 months we have compiled data, measured our progress, and sent out questionaires to our musicians' clients and conducted focus groups with them. The result is that we are more determined than ever to PREVENT DEATH BY LIFESTYLE, taking a pro-active approach to keep our music alive. There are two recent articles that sum up the challenges the uninsured in New Orleans face:

Please join in and let’s keep our culture alive! For more information: Diabetes.org

Bethany
NOMC&AF President and Co-Founder