Butler, like many who try to promote good health, at times has been frustrated. But most of the people who come are in their 40s, 50s and 60s, people who've already been diagnosed with high cholesterol and blood pressure. Blacks suffer disproportionately from life-threatening medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and stroke. Blacks are nearly twice as likely to develop diabetes as non-Latino whites, according to the American Diabetes Association. Nearly 11 percent of blacks have diabetes, and one-third of them don't know it.
Diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, amputations, heart attack and stroke.
Blacks have among the highest rates of hypertension in the world, according to the American Heart Association. One in three suffers from high blood pressure, compared with one in four adults in the general U.S. population. Blacks suffer fatal strokes at 1.8 times the rate for whites, and fatal heart disease at 1.5 times the rate for whites. Blacks have higher rates of obesity than others, according to the heart association. More than 64 percent of non-Hispanic black adults are overweight, according to the heart association.