Claudia Rankine Quotes

I was at Yale and I said to the poet Elizabeth Alexander, "I'm interested in the ways in which black health seems precarious in the United States." She introduced me to the term "John Henryism." And then I went back and researched it and understood that, woah, this thing I am thinking about is actually a condition that's named.

In the African-American community, we struggle with a lot of health problems that have a lot to do with our diet.

I am not saying do not give people equal health services but do not pretend that giving more money for diabetes or chronic diseases means you are going to deal with the origins of health inequalities.

Diabetes occurs at twice the rate in the African American community as it does in white Americans.

According to the American Heart Association, the prevalence of hypertension in African Americans in the United States is among the highest in the world.

Now, a recent study from cardiologists at the University of Maryland, has shown that laughter may have a beneficial effect on the heart.

Appreciate your heart; really know how to take care of your heart.

I think doctors have really come up to speed and understand that more women than men die of heart disease. [But] all the research on heart disease has really been based on men, and needs to be updated with research on women - even very early-stage research is done using male rats!

One surprise is how deeply the food system is implicated in climate change. I don't think that has really been on people's radar until very recently. 25 to 33 percent of climate change gases can be traced to the food system. I was also surprised that those diseases that we take for granted as what will kill us - heart disease, cancer, diabetes - were virtually unknown 150 years ago, before we began eating this way.

Preventing cardiovascular disease can help free up critical resources for treating HIV/AIDS and other illnesses.

Multinational food companies can play a large role in helping to prevent chronic diseases around the world by offering healthier choices in the United States and abroad.

I've always been athletic - I ran track in high school - and it kept my blood pressure in check over the years. Once I was diagnosed with hypertension, I stepped up my workouts.

I'm constantly taking my own blood pressure.

There's this narrative that is entrenched in some of the professions that there's this mysterious thing called 'socioeconomic status' that is immutably correlated with health. And it isn't.

Part of high cholesterol is that you can look at yourself in the mirror, and you can feel great and think there's no issues. But silently, they can be affecting your heart.

It's a bit of a myth that too much cholesterol causes heart attacks.

Low socioeconomic status carries with it an enormously increased risk of a broad range of diseases, and this gradient cannot be fully explained by factors such as health-care access.

Not everybody who is overweight comes from deprived backgrounds, but that's where the propensity lies.

Heart disease has changed my eating habits, but I still cook bacon for the smell.

Because women don't expect to have heart disease, a lot of times they don't seek help if they have the early symptoms of a heart attack.

Well it's been about 100 years and every attempt at a comics writers' union has failed miserably. There is, sadly, a long history of short-term thinking and self-destructive behavior among my fellow comic book creators. No matter how many horror stories they have heard they won't even go so far as to hire themselves a lawyer when they need it. It breaks my heart. I am a very proud union member of the Writers Guild. And I can't imagine my fellow comic creators being able to pull something like this together.

We need to alert women everywhere about the seriousness of heart disease.

In March I had a minor heart attack while I was vacationing in Australia. it scared me, but it was nothing compared to what someone had in store for me down the road.

As it stands right now, I lead Richard Pryor in heart attacks, two to one. However, Richard still leads me, one to nothing, in burning yourself up.

If [you are] over the age of 10, the question isn't whether or not to eat healthy to prevent heart disease, it's whether or not you want to reverse the heart disease you already have.