SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello. Welcome to another episode of For Your Health News Podcast. We have Dr. Otis Brawley here. We are so excited to have you as part of this conversation. We would love to learn more about your organization. Why was it important for you to be represented in this conversation?

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Well, thank you very much. I'm here representing the CEO Roundtable, and I'm also a professor at Johns Hopkins University. Much of what I've done throughout my career is define what the cancer problem is and define what the problems are in disparities. And the route to overcoming disparities involves a spectrum of prevention, appropriate screening, and appropriate diagnostics, and appropriate treatment. And the way you actually start the uh prevention part of it is through lifestyle change. And we need to work such that people are living a healthy life and doing healthy things at home, at play, and at work. So the CEO roundtable controls a great deal of the at-work part. There's also a part of the CEO round table that's now getting involved with universities, especially with historically black universities. And so we want to try to encourage people to uh teach how to stay healthy and practice how to stay healthy, both at home, at work, and at play.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

And tell us how that looks like on the ground and some can you highlight some of the work you're doing with HBCUs?

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Uh with HBCUs, there's a lot of uh education. Uh we're meeting with leadership of uh the historically black colleges. We're talking about things like what are you serving in your dormitories? Uh is it lots of high carbohydrate, calorie-dense foods? Uh are we encouraging students to get exercise? Uh and trying to get students to take those messages on to their families. You know, so these are some of the things that we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

And what's the most exciting part about this work right now for you?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

The optimism, uh the interest that people actually have in health. Uh uh, one of the things we have to do sometimes is try to make sure that they do things that are very science-based and very efficient. Because, for example, in the in the realm of cancer, everybody talks about screen, screen, screen and doesn't understand there are appropriate screening tests that we really need to do, and they're screening tests that just don't work. And if we spend a lot of time doing things that don't work, we take away from the things that actually do work, and we consume resources that could be put into doing things that would be much more valuable to the population. So the most exciting thing is the optimism, but that leads us with this challenge that we have to continue the work to educate about doing efficient science-based screening, efficient science-based prevention.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Is there an HVCU that you want to highlight that you are like they are they're leading this effort? We can we can choose favorites here on this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Oh no, no, no. You're not gonna get me to go there. You know, you know, I I've uh a family tradition at Morehouse College, but I am not going to I'm not gonna single out any particular institution.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Okay, we'll take that. Well, since right before you got on here, we talked a lot about your work at Johns Hopkins and also you living in Baltimore. And so what are you seeing this the state, the city of Baltimore doing in supporting healthy outcomes for people who live there?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

You know, we have a very dynamic young mayor who's very interested in uh food deserts and food swamps. Uh, one of the things that we could do uh that would help the population as a whole in the United States and especially in Baltimore, if we could get everybody eating five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day, if we could get everybody walking for just 20 to 30 minutes per day for exercise. Uh, and he's trying to trying to promote health. He's got a uh very exciting DC Cancer Coalition that's talking about smoking. Uh and they even have uh they send underage people into various stores to make sure that those underage people cannot buy tobacco products, uh tobacco being the leading cause of cancer in the United States. And of course, uh almost every smoker will tell you that they started smoking at the age of 14 or 15. So keeping tobacco out of the hands of 14, 15, 16-year-olds is preventing people from becoming smokers, and that's going to prevent a lot of death. Remember, smoking is linked to 18 different kinds of cancer.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Wow. I am walking away with that new information today. That might come up in trivia later on. So I'm definitely keeping that in mind. And thank you so much. I I think it's important to highlight the public and private partnerships we're seeing here. You highlighting some of the mayor's work, and of course, the CEO's roundtable on this. So thank you so much for being part of this, and thank you for shouting out Baltimore. It holds a special place in our heart, and I love seeing the great work that's happening there. Thank you for making the time.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

You take care of you take care of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Thank you.