By Latha Raja Shankar, M.D., MBA, Chief Medical Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico Preventing Falls in Older Adults Did you know that falls are the leading cause of injury and injury-related deaths in the United States? Falling is especially problematic...
By Brooke Parish, M.D., Medical Director, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico The term behavioral health is often used interchangeably with mental health but is a broader term that encompasses our well-being, our thoughts, biology, interaction with others,...
By Latha Raja Shankar, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico Vision problems and eye diseases are often considered a normal part of the aging process, but they don’t have to be. Our risk of developing eye conditions and poor vision...
By Latha Raja Shankar, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico As we age, natural changes in the brain occur. These may result in slower processing speeds and greater difficulty multi-tasking, according to the Centers for Disease Control...
By Latha Raja Shankar, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico Heart disease and stroke are the No. 1 and No. 5 killers respectively of all Americans, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Since high blood pressure is a...
Ask a Health Care Professional Latha Raja Shankar, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico One out of three people in the United States are likely to develop shingles in their lifetime. The data show that the rate of older adults getting...
By Diana Weber, M.D., Medical Director, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico March is national Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, which draws attention to one of our country’s most deadly but often preventable diseases. Colon cancer, which starts in the large...
By Diana Weber, M.D., Medical Director, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico February is American Heart Month, which is an opportunity to direct our focus toward recognizing and preventing heart disease. Heart disease causes one in three deaths each year, but most...
By Diana Weber, M.D., Medical Director, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico As we age, all areas of our bodies are affected, though the manifestations are different in every person. While we cannot reverse the aging process, we can take actions to minimize the...
By Diana Weber, M.D., Medical Director, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico How prevalent is high blood pressure? Nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure. Unfortunately, many people are unaware that they have high blood pressure because it is...
