By Dianne Anderson

Don’t have a stroke used to be like a joke – until people realized the statistics aren’t so funny.

Being stressed out is one big trigger to increasing blood pressure, increased inflammation, more cortisol, even as experts agree that the right food, the right choices, and regular checkups can help stop it in its tracks.

Recently, St. John’s Community Health Center opened a clinic in San Bernardino, and they are seeing more people stressed out and looking for free and low-cost programs and services.

Bianca Pinedo said they serve a good demographic mix, and increased foot traffic. Many in the community are working with them to help get services out to the people.

Twice a month, they offer food distribution.

“We have our community closet on site in the clinic where they can come to get bags of clothing, try something on. We have food bags, baby diapers, a lot of different things. We’re right in the heart of where people really need help,” she said.

On Saturday, May 24, she is inviting the community for a walk-in day at their local clinic. There, they can receive free blood pressure screenings on site along with many other resources. The event runs from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. at 1500 N Waterman Ave, San Bernardino.

“We’ll be offering free haircuts, free food and food distribution. We’re going to have activities for the kids. Everything is completely free, it’s one location, medical, dental, all the programs.”

Located at Waterman and Gilbert, they are looking to work closely with local partners. On their website, she said they proudly focus on diversity, and that DEI is not something that scares them. In fact, that’s the way they like it.

“One reason we leave that information on our website is we’re not hiding anything,” she said.

Although St. John’s Community Health Center is new to San Bernardino and the Inland Empire, with two other clinics in Indio and another in San Jacinto – they are not new. They have over 20 clinics and have been around for 60 years serving many thousands in Los Angeles County.

Their one-stop-shop clinic is a Federally Qualified Health Center.

“We offer mental health services and we also offer wraparound programs. We have homeless housing services, women’s health, homeless health, behavioral health program, transgender health and a reentry program helping formerly incarcerated to get back into society,” she said.

They are also on track with positioning their organization by advocating at the state level to fight potential budget cuts so they can continue to provide vital medical resources, including dental.

“We’re trying to roll with it. With the budgets being cuts it’s going to be pretty hard to fight against that,” she said. “Some of our staff go out to the state capitol often to advocate for our clients and our families and let them know what will happen if they do cut Medi-Cal.”

Cornelious “C.J.” Page Jr., a health advocate based in Victorville, is very concerned about how not having access to good health care impacts the community.

One study, Structural Racism and Racial Disparities in Stroke Mortality in the United States 2021, found disparities linked to county-level structural racism, and most strongly linked to stroke mortality among Black men.

Page, founder and director of the Community Health Action Network (CHAN), is launching his series on heart attacks and stroke, something hitting Black men more than other groups.

He said the clock is ticking.

“It’s like a time bomb, it ticks and waits, whenever you go to the doctor and they say that it is projected that you will have a heart attack or stroke in ten years based on what you are doing right now,” he said.

In his wellness classes, he covers the information, the data, and also looks at alternatives to cancer-causing processed meats, and processed seed oils, all well-documented as bad for health.

“My job is to inform and build advocacy, trying to challenge people to watch the difference between beef and pork and fatty foods versus those who eat right. I’m trying to advocate for No Meat Mondays,” he said.

Last week, Page spent time in Sacramento, focused on policy and a contract with Gov. Newsom’s office that deals with partnerships and learning how to grow trusted messengers to reach more people in the community.

He was beating the bushes for community engagement training at the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, which has already awarded millions of dollars to CBOs through its various programs.

Policy work in Sacramento is critical. Page is also part of the Black Equity Initiative of the Inland Empire (BEI-IE) where he brings more attention to the disparities around stroke, heart disease, diet and diabetes.

Right now, his outreach and classes are focused on BMI checks, and Body Mass Index. For most people, he said stroke doesn’t strike by chance, but it’s usually years of bad choices.

“BMI, cholesterol, heart disease and stroke, it all goes together,” he said. “Stroke is not just going to come, but stroke comes by certain things that we put in our bodies that can lead to that. It affects African Americans very highly.”

Not to mention, diabetes and neuropathy.

Coming up, his neuropathy class filled up fast. They will have information and help, but he had to close down reservations because demand was so high.

“I had to move the room, I had a lot of people calling,” he said. “It’s resonating right now, a lot of people have diabetes and have the pain, but others don’t understand. It can get too far, everything is running through that sugar.”

For more information on St. John’s Health Center, see https://sjch.org/sb/, or call (909) 703-4099

For CHAN health help and services, see https://chanhd.com

To see the Race Study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953625000346?via%3Dihub