Hard life ruins American Indians' health
Story-Date: 03:52 a.m. PST Tuesday  , August 4, 1998

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Hard life ruins American Indians' health


By Tracey A. Reeves
Mercury News Washington Bureau

American Indians are generally born healthy. It's the havoc of their lives
after birth that makes their overall health outlook seem bleak.

Poor diet, alcohol and drug abuse, poverty, social isolation, cultural
differences and lack of education have all contributed to the hard life of
American Indians. The result is a harrowing list of afflictions, especially
among the young: a higher-than-average incidence of sudden infant death
syndrome, suicide, diabetes and liver disease. American Indian teenagers
and young adults had the highest suicide rates of all ethnic groups,
according to 1995 statistics. Adult Indians were more likely than any other
ethnic group to die in car accidents, many of them alcohol-related.

To make matters worse, even though America's roughly 1.2 million Indians
are entitled to free health care at Indian clinics and hospitals, many of
them live too far away or lack transportation.

"Our culture is one that will go to the clinic for emergencies, but not for
ongoing and preventive care," said Dr. Michael Trujillo, head of the Indian
Health Service, a federal agency that serves the health needs of Indians
and Alaska natives.

A few studies have shown that urban Indians have worse health than rural
Indians.

"They've also got major problems coping with urbanization and the stresses
that come with leaving a way of life that is so different from what you
know." said Dr. Bill Green, a New Mexico pediatrician, most of whose
patients are Indian.

Sometimes, too, Indians avoid modern medicine, preferring the health
rituals of their culture. Finding doctors who can blend the two approaches
is difficult.

Like African-American babies, Indian infants are three times more likely to
die of sudden infant death syndrome than whites are. Researchers say this
is partly because American Indians have failed to heed calls to place
sleeping babies on their backs instead of their stomachs or sides.

Many Indians are born with the emotional and behavioral disorders linked to
fetal alcohol syndrome, a condition caused by a woman's heavy drinking
during pregnancy.

Indians have the highest death rate for liver disease and, after blacks,
the second highest for diabetes.

Some tribes, like the Pimas of Arizona, the Zunis of New Mexico, and the
Oglala Sioux of South Dakota, have diabetes rates near epidemic
proportions.

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