California Black Media

The average African American born today has a 50% chance of developing type 2 diabetes in his or her lifetime and is twice as likely as whites to be hospitalized from it and 2.3 times as likely to die from it.    Presently, 11.4% of all African Americans aged 20 years or older have diabetes. (At least one-third of them don't know it). 

The statistics are staggering. And Dr. Bill Releford, a Los Angeles-based podiatrist specializing in Diabetic limb salvage can recall the exact moment he set out to change them.

It was in his home office early one morning that he was pondering ways to reach black men-a group that traditionally did not go to the doctor-with his message of diabetes prevention, that the perfect place came to him: the barbershop.

“Regardless of our economic status,” Releford states, “that's the one place you can see black men from every spectrum of society- the preacher to the drug dealer. They all have to get their hair cut.”

A few days later during a routine jog in Kenneth Hahn Park, Releford ran the idea by his own barber, Donte Kelly.

'Man, I think it would be cool,” Kelly responded, but it wasn't until two weeks later on a Sunday that Releford was prompted to move forward.

“I was in the barber chair and heard a voice tell me 'what are you waiting for'”, Releford recalls. “I got out of the chair, drove over to Crenshaw Boulevard, which has a pretty big concentration of barber shops, and asked random barbers about the idea. The response was overwhelming.

If every movement has its spiritual moment, that was it for Releford-the day he found out why he was born, and two months later in December 2007, the Black Barbershop Outreach Program was born.

They started in Inglewood with 20 - 25 barbershops and not a whole lot of support.
 

“The general thinking was that men don't need any outreach,” Releford explains. “You know, big boys don't cry. But men do cry. They have pain and they get sick. Fact is, African American men have the lowest life expectancy of any group, still there were very few resources for this severely underserved fragile population.”

But with the help of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the program received some resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The response was so overwhelming that a year later it was expanded to 50 other L.A. barbershops and shops in other metropolitan cities like Atlanta.

And this past November in Los Angeles, over 250 volunteers were mobilized to work in over 100 barbershops where nearly 1,500 men were screened for diabetes and high blood pressure. As is typical to the program, 35% of them were diagnosed with some form of cardiovascular disease and placed on a lifestyle program and diet that would allow them to live with the disease.

"I truly believe the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program saved my life,” said one Los Angeles man. “When I was tested my blood pressure was 210 / 115. I was sent directly to the emergency room. Who knows, I could have had a stroke or maybe even been dead."

"I thought I was in pretty good shape,” said an Atlanta man screened at a separate event. “I went to get a haircut and saw nurses at a table in the back but didn't pay them any attention until my barber suggested I get tested. I could see in their eyes that something was wrong. My blood pressure was 190 over 95. I am now on medication and have changed my diet."

Results like that are what get people excited about the program.

“We see men whose blood glucose is so high the machine can't read it,” Releford states. “In New Orleans, eight people were sent to the emergency room in one day. In Alexandria, it was five. In Shreveport, there were two. It varies depending on where you live demographically in this country, but wherever you see an abundance of liquor stores and fast food venues, fewer outlets to buy fresh fruits and vegetables and high crime, you'll find higher rates of premature death from cardiovascular disease.”

What you're also likely to find according to statistics is black men who don't go to the doctor. Releford and other black medical professionals attribute it to any number of factors including a lack of finances, fear, racism or a deeply rooted distrust of the medical system.

“Whatever the reason,” states Releford, “black men don't talk about getting sick and the end result is we're not at the doctor's office.

“Historically, black owned barbershops, particularly during the civil rights movement, were places they could gather and one of the few institutions still operated by African Americans men in particular. We talk about politics, relationships and women. Now we're talking about diabetes, the signs and symptoms of a stroke and the types of changes you can make in your lifestyle so that you don't become a statistic.”
 

There are over 10,000 barbershops in the program's database and those numbers are expanding thanks to the growing national recognition that has come from media coverage on the NBC Nightly News, The View, in Newsweek, the New York Times and reporters in search of a good story.

The Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program works through collaborations with existing organizations in communities around the country with support from leading pharmaceutical companies, the National Institute of Health, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and inspired individuals.

“We partner with hospitals, nursing organizations, fraternities and sororities, universities and individuals to mine the resources that are for the most part unavailable or people in the community are unaware that they exist. We build partnerships on the ground with barbers who know barbers in their community and they essentially become team leaders in helping us fulfill our objectives.

In 2010, a 50-city tour of the Black Barbershop Outreach Program will include secondary markets like Kansas City, St. Louis, Mobile, Memphis, Cleveland, Tampa, Orlando, as well as key markets like Atlanta and New York. And in 2012, Releford envisions a “Black Barbershop Day” to be held simultaneously around the country. That is how he says he will reach his goal of screening 500,000 men and for Releford, reaching the goal is, to be sure, a matter of destiny.

“I've always been one who wanted to make a difference,” Releford says. “My mom used to be a dietician in a hospital and I'd go pick her up from work or ride the bus home with her and I would see the doctors and think, 'Wow, one day I can do that.'”

That was back in Waggoner, Oklahoma, a small town just outside Tulsa where he was born the eldest of two children to a businessman and his dietician wife. Bred on a strong hard work ethic, there were no summers off for Releford who was driving a six-shift truck hauling construction supplies before he ever had a driver's license.

The family moved to Los Angeles when he was seven, but retained ties in Oklahoma so he was shuttled back and forth for a time before graduating from L.A. High in 1978. After undergrad studies at Cal Poly Long Beach, medical school at Temple University and a year and a half residency at Southwest Detroit Hospital, Releford returned to Los Angeles, starting his private practice in 1990.

Having specialized in podiatry for sports medicine, he hoped to work on the Lakers. That's where fate stepped in.

“Early on in my practice, I began to see a very disturbing trend of African American diabetic patients recommended for amputation when in 75% of the cases, amputation was preventable,” Releford reports.

Word of a black doctor dedicated to bringing down the amputation rates of blacks with diabetes and working to save badly infected toes, feet and lower legs, spread.

“People would show up in my office with hospital gowns on as if they'd just walked out after being informed by a doctor that they needed to have a limb amputated.”

Overwhelmed by the devastation that a loss of limb meant to an individual and family, Releford's entire practice, the Inglewood-based, Diabetic Foot Institute, became and remains dedicated exclusively to diabetic limb salvage and has the distinction of being one of the first non-academic facilities to use bio-engineered tissue in the United States during a clinical trial to create a medical procedure used to heal diabetic ulcerations and prevent unnecessary amputations.

“I saw that patients were uneducated about the standard of care that they deserved, how they could prevent the progression and even the development of diabetes. Many were unaware of the significance of diet and exercise in maintaining overall good health.

“At the time, I was working with the American Heart, American Diabetes Association. And I was not pleased with their messaging to the African American community, so I woke up one morning and said, “why am I fighting with them, let me just start my own organization, the Diabetic Amputation Prevention Foundation with the ultimate goal of decreasing the amputation rates in high risk populations both domestically and internationally.”

And despite a down economy, the Black Barbershop Outreach Program continues to see positive results. Results that have opened the doors for even greater support from pharmaceutical companies like Abbott Laboratories, which manufactures blood-sugar monitors and insulin syringes; groups such as the Association of Black Cardiologists and the Charles Drew University of Medicine, where he is an associate professor; and celebrities like Keenen Ivory Wayans, the Whispers and Sherri Shepherd.

“With the right partnership, we're ready to venture into beauty salons,” Releford reports.

In the meantime, the data that has been collected is still being analyzed.

“We've got a little ways to go before we really do a complete analysis of our program, but the data will be used to tell a clear picture of what's happening with African American men as it relates to cardiovascular disease, but early analysis a disturbing trend of obesity, bad dietary habits and not enough exercise.”

Some of the findings are reflected in a book he released last February, “Five Colors To Better Health”, dedicated to a clear understanding of how eating a variety of colors in a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can reduce your risk of diabetes and high blood pressure as well as other chronic diseases.

“We also developed what's called the Real Black Book Medical Resource Guide, a listing of free and low cost health care resources that many of our people in our communities may not know exist. So if you come into a barbershop and your findings require follow up, we refer you to one of the facilities in our network, and it's well documented that blacks feel more comfortable going to African American healthcare providers.”

Ultimately, Releford hopes to see a healthcare infrastructure where there's equity.

“If black men don't have the resources to go to the doctor on a preventive basis, the problem is exacerbated by neglect. Something that could have been prevented turns into full-blown hospitalization and everything that comes with it.

“Prevention,” says the husband and father of two girls, aged 11 and 13, “should start in the elementary schools.  With sodas, chips and things like that, by the time they're 23, it's too late for some people. Someone needs to reel in the fast food and tobacco industry that strategically market to vulnerable populations.”

Releford believes that efforts like his coupled with the city's newfound moratorium on fast foot joints and the awareness people like First Lady Michelle Obama have brought to harvesting-and eating-more vegetables is helping to make a difference.

“These are things”, Releford says, “that send the signal that perhaps somewhere out there, someone's getting it. Money alone can't make this happen. You need human capital and the passion people feel to forge change in their community.”

Until that happens he just feels blessed to be the vessel through which so many lives are being transformed.