Dr. Shruti Varadarajan Speaks About Healthcare Disparities and Obesity

The speaker for the day was Dr. Shruti Varadarajan, the medical director of the Spring Branch Community Health Center. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Varadarajan also attended the University of Cincinnati Medical school and arrived in Houston when she did her residency in Houston at Spring Branch. She had always hoped to practice family medicine in this type of setting and found this opportunity to her liking.  She spoke to the club regarding Healthcare Disparities and Obesity. In a talk laden with statistics, she indicated that her patients at the clinic, who are usually Hispanic, have sugar counts which are often three to four times higher than the normal population and are consequently at a much higher risk for complications from diabetes. This problem is compounded by the obesity trends in the Hispanic population which are at 39.3% compared with 30% in the general population. She also said that another issue at play is the fact that the population she sees is often economically impacted by an inability to purchase medications that they need to address these issues, even though the relative cost of the drugs necessary to combat most of the diabetic issues she sees is fairly low.  She concluded by encouraging people to eat healthier and get more exercise. According to Dr. Varadarajan, the biggest single negative bringing about this issue is a sedentary lifestyle with too little exercise.