In Brownsville, the city and local hospital have helped residents lose more than 23,000 pounds since 2008.
28 minutes agoNew Spirit Airlines dress code policy targets offensive clothing, tattoosPedro Mego, a medical doctor specializing in treating peripheral artery disease and helping patients prevent the need for limb amputations, poses for a photo at his clinic in Mission on Jan. 21, 2025.— a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state.
"It could potentially become a problem in the future for me if I don't start exercising now," Jesus said."I'm taking this as an opportunity to improve my health before it gets any worse." The university expanded the fitness challenge to the other parts of the Rio Grande Valley including Edinburg. They also collaborate with other neighboring cities to provide access to free gyms, nutritional information along with other resources through a program called"Tu Salud ¡Si Cuenta!" which translates to"Your Health Counts."
A volunteer measures a participants' blood pressure at The Challenge weigh-in and registration on Jan. 11 in Brownsville.Participants of The Challenge Jesus Ibarra, left, and Maria Ibarra, wait in line at the event weigh-in and registration. Jesus, 15, wants to eat healthier and be active. Maria, 53, had taken up walking and eating healthier options, partly out of fear of developing diabetes.
are classified as overweight, according to Dr. Sarah Williams-Blangero, director of the South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute and chief of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine’s Division of Human Genetics.Despite the progress reported by UTHealth Houston, Williams-Blangero said there is still a struggle to move the needle dramatically comes down to a reality everyone knows all too well –– losing weight is hard.
“It's hard to lose weight, It's hard to get exercise routinely integrated into your day and so it's just a difficult problem to address,” Williams-Blangero said. Seeing what their grandfather went through, both Deborah and Falisha, 30, knew something needed to change when they discovered they were pre-diabetic.
In some of the worst-case scenarios, the disease can lead to leg amputations. In 2023, Texas reported 5% of every 10,000 hospital discharges were for diabetes related amputations and each Valley county exceeded that rate: Hidalgo reported 6.8%, Cameron reported 7.8%, Starr reported 11.% and Willacy reported 12.9%, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Patients of his who were classified as obese were able to lose weight by changing their eating habits and believes that people who participate in community health challenges at least start thinking about making positive changes for their health.
Health Care State Government Brownsville Edinburg Hidalgo Cameron County Hidalgo County Webb County Rio Grande Valley University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley Texas Legislature
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