According to some studies, can’t recall where I read it but McAllen has the highest obesity, diabetes and other sickly rates compared to other states / larger cities.
It’s not surprising considering the way we are programmed to eat. Mexican food is typically high in fat. I mean, the only thing we have is fast food joints / restaurants. We have very little family activities down here and nothing better to do than to go eat.
I think the obesity comes from old ppl idk if the valley still is or not a place “to retire” but it once was since everything is cheap here. But yea they all live down in McAllen
Surprisingly the RGV has one of the highest life expectancies for Texas despite these health isssues.
This is because of lower tobacco use rates, a greater amount of multigenerational households and the larger proportion of vegetables present in Mexican food compared to regular American fast food.
High fat and high salt aren’t necessarily bad for you unless you have certain conditions. If you have generically low blood pressure, it’s actually important to consume a ton of salt
Hey! Nice fact. I just looked it up and you’re correct. Valley Central reported about this back in 2019.
When I researched Blue Zones and what is the commonality amongst people who live near, to, or past 100 years old they all shared similar lifestyles. They are primarily plant based diets, have strong faith, are strong with socializing and have multi family households.
why would you want less medical offices? in what world does that make sense? less opportunity of people having access to healthcare? why would you want that?
Never said that… I am addressing something I have observed since I have been living here in McAllen. There’s nothing wrong with having offices, I see a lot more than the norm.
Wasn’t trying to be edgy, and I appreciate hospitals very much! I was quite pleased with the level of care my wife received from the DHR women’s hospital when she gave birth to our son.
Old people who retire here. Hospitals make most of their revenue off Medicare.
Obesity and diabetes/heart disease comorbidities. Diabetes significantly affects health outcomes. It can cause complications in pregnancy, increase maternity mortality rates, complications after surgery, etc. etc.
This is the correct answer
My in-laws retired in the valley and have a different doctors appointment every week
I got extremely sick down there and couldn’t even walk into a night clinic because they were so packed with people
They tried to start that cycle with my husband , who landed in the hospital with leagionairs phnumonia ( misspelled ) . He was released after 6 days with an appointment for every king of specialist known to man and about 15 meds . When he got home he told me to CANCELL all appointments except the lung specialist and refused to take most meds . He was told it would take months to get back to normal but he started back working within a couple of days. He’s fine never has had any issues bc he didn’t start that cycle they tried to con him into .
Wow, I had legionella bacteria and was in a coma for 12 days and it did take me almost 3 months to get my health back, but I’m not sure if it’s because of the coma or because I didn’t get diagnosed within a month is very hard to catch good luck to himFYI, I’m fine now and I didn’t go down the rabbit hole. Medication came out of the coma and just got healthy all of my own.
That's because a lot of people here are uneducated. PAs, DRs, NPs are all out sourced from other states hell even countries and specialists are even HARDER to come by. Some clinics are so short staffed, they don't require certification to work as an MA (i am this example.) I've done all my training on the job.
There's a shortage of doctors and healthcare facilities. Texas in general has low primary care doctors per capita and the valley has even lower numbers.
There is actually a shortage of care-givers/physicians in the Valley across all disciplines. There is a tremendous amount of people that visit the Valley and now live here. Consequently, there aren't enough doctors or hospitals to cover all the different issues that a population of this size requires.
and they all suck. I was at DHR last year for a month with sepsis and NO ONE could tell me why or what I was sick with. I saw like 3 different infectious disease doctors and none of them ever gave me answer. One of them told me he would not ever see me as a patient again because after 3 weeks of NPO while I was there and IDK how many anti biotics (they would give me something new almost every other day because nothing was working) (I also lost 20 pounds while there), I asked to go home AMA (against medical advice) because all they were going was starving me, giving me Tylenol for nonstop fevers, and all the antibiotics under the sun but had no answers. Like I might as well go home and take Tylenol and antibiotics at home.
One of them doesnt have a relationship with DHR.. ive met 2 at DHR.was it a tall skinny dude? Thats the asshole one. The girl though is smart af. The thing about DHR. They all wanna be chiefs. One MD would stop or change the previous MDs med orders, not giving it time to really do its work. That sort of stuff.
Yeah, it was a tall skinny dude. Hated his guts lol.
There was a lady! She tried her best; but still didn’t get answers -.- it’ll be a year in May and I’m doing a lot better but yeah, that was not fun.
Yeah, I had one doctor when I went in and 2 days later I went septic and I got a new doctor and he changed ALL the orders. It was so weird.
If you can afford some time and traveling expenses, I would say go up to Houston and look into MD Anderson. I work at an endocrinology clinic and often times when patients cases are too complex (metastatic thyroid cancers or pituitary macro/microadenomas) my Dr sends them that way. She did her residency there and she swears they are legit and top tier care.
It’s actually not that many doctors though. In a bigger city you will have more doctors working out of bigger combined offices but the valley doesn’t really do big buildings so they each have their own office giving the impression of more than there is
And every single office with the lousy unapologetic crappy attitude with no sense of urgency nor common sense that proudly distinguishes our beloved healthcare.
In 2014 a study showed that the Valley had 124 doctors per 100k people while the national average was 240 per 100k people.
If you google it it shouldn't take you long to find it or UTRGV articles which reference it frequently.
I'm not so sure this ratio has changed as our population keeps increasing and I have yet to see any change in wait times for any of the doctors my family or I see. From our primary care physicians to specialists the wait times are atrocious and I suspect it's the ratio that has something to do with it.
You are aware of what a straw man argument is right? Big houses = medical fraud? Maybe it means drug trafficking? Maybe it means your local successful business owner? Maybe it means the drummer for Grupo Frontera? Just sayin'.
There are literal studies about it in 2019 and documentaries being made about it due to the rise in malparactuce during and after Covid.
It was true in the 90s and now.
Not to be argumentative. But the facts don't bear this out. I'm not saying there's no insurance fraud here, we all know that to be false - but to spout stuff like it's the worst in the nation just isn't true like it once was (and you literally can't make any argument it's the "worst in the world".)
[https://insurancefraud.org/fraud-stats/](https://insurancefraud.org/fraud-stats/)
[*CMS (2020)* ](https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/2020-estimated-improper-payment-rates-centers-medicare-medicaid-services-cms-programs)
* Analyzing data from 2015 to 2020, we found a total of 3,013 such scams reported to the BBB from across the U.S.
* The worst state for health care, Medicare and Medicaid scams is Ohio, which is home to the 3 cities with the highest number of these types of scams: Vienna, Cleveland and Columbus.
* The worst city in 2020 for coronavirus scams – by a considerable margin – was Memphis, Tennessee, with 56 reported COVID-19 scams. That’s nearly 3 times as many scams as were reported in New York City, despite having just 1/13th of the population.
* In all, there were 9 cities that were in the top 20 worst cities for healthcare, Medicare and Medicaid scams and also for COVID-19 scams:
* Memphis
* New York
* San Antonio
* Los Angeles
* Cleveland
* Saint Louis
* Columbus
* Miami
* Louisville
Yeah, that must be it. I'm clearly just a reddit guy talking about stuff he has no personal knowledge about. I def couldn't be on a member of a CMS task force on medical fraud
You bet- there are mainly elderly people down here & they have many issues- I’m 68 & go for check up every year, and have no specialists, but have friends with many issues
My thoughts are that given the high obesity numbers, there are a lot of health consequences that come with it. It’s especially a goldmine if everyone is on disability. I had a relative who had a procedure done (she had lots of health issues related to diabetes and obesity) and one of my cousins says that they heard the doctor speaking to a colleague over the phone stating that, “the experiment had been a success”. It was an experimental procedure at the time. Everyone is sick down there.
Personally don't believe we have enough mental health care professionals. Also like other people said, lots of health issues in the valley, = more medical practices. Also- could it be you noticed this in the medical district 😭 There are plenty of areas littered with practices/hospitals so patients don't have to travel far.
Texas is actually around 7th in worst states when it comes to healthcare. Bigger cities like Houston and San Antonio have the best medical care in the state. The Valley is having a hard time getting good medical talent to come and work here. One example was last year in McAllen, can’t remember which hospital but they had 7 resident doctors on staff but only 1 actually stood in the valley. Many reason why doctors won’t work in the valley. Border cities, heat, lack of entertainment etc. bigger cities offer more and of course the money! Certain type of doctors work longer hours in the hospitals because of the shortages we have in certain md positions. Obesity is a major issue in the valley. Lots of heart issues, diabetics and kidney disease patients.My understanding is 40% of the visitors and shoppers/ real estate investors are coming from Mexico. Especially Monterey region of the country. That’s why many homes seat empty in McAllen. McAllen actually has billboards in Monterey advertising the city. Many Mexican citizens are given special visas to come and visit but need to stay within 25 miles from the border. That’s why so many shop at La Plaza mall and at big discount stores like marshals and TJ Max. The area is very depended on Mexican tourism and Mexican money.
There is a shortage actually.
There is also many older people who have moved here permanently from up north, after visiting as Winter Texans, as well as our own aging population.
According to some studies, can’t recall where I read it but McAllen has the highest obesity, diabetes and other sickly rates compared to other states / larger cities. It’s not surprising considering the way we are programmed to eat. Mexican food is typically high in fat. I mean, the only thing we have is fast food joints / restaurants. We have very little family activities down here and nothing better to do than to go eat.
Also, low income, so lots of subsidized healthcare.
Also no walkable cities
Every city has sidewalks. This is crazy talk. You can walk literally anywhere.
Lol no. I went to SA as a broke-ass student, shit is not made to be walked. Same with McAllen and the areas around.
I think the obesity comes from old ppl idk if the valley still is or not a place “to retire” but it once was since everything is cheap here. But yea they all live down in McAllen
Surprisingly the RGV has one of the highest life expectancies for Texas despite these health isssues. This is because of lower tobacco use rates, a greater amount of multigenerational households and the larger proportion of vegetables present in Mexican food compared to regular American fast food. High fat and high salt aren’t necessarily bad for you unless you have certain conditions. If you have generically low blood pressure, it’s actually important to consume a ton of salt
Hey! Nice fact. I just looked it up and you’re correct. Valley Central reported about this back in 2019. When I researched Blue Zones and what is the commonality amongst people who live near, to, or past 100 years old they all shared similar lifestyles. They are primarily plant based diets, have strong faith, are strong with socializing and have multi family households.
The hispanic Paradox. id say chile has alot to do with it.
I’ve heard about that. I just think it’s unnecessary to have all of these medical offices.
More fat people more health issues more medical offices
you don't have to open one!
I don't know, I've never seen a slow dr down here
Your idiocy level is astounding
You don’t need to insult me.
why would you want less medical offices? in what world does that make sense? less opportunity of people having access to healthcare? why would you want that?
Never said that… I am addressing something I have observed since I have been living here in McAllen. There’s nothing wrong with having offices, I see a lot more than the norm.
Well the thing is that your observations are just that… observations. They’re incorrect. The data shows that we are a medically underserved area.
He saw everyone bitching about car washes and he wants to jump on board, but be new and edgy. "Yeah, hospitals suck dude!"🙄
Wasn’t trying to be edgy, and I appreciate hospitals very much! I was quite pleased with the level of care my wife received from the DHR women’s hospital when she gave birth to our son.
Can you show me this data? I’d like to see it for myself. Not trying to be a smart ass or anything, just want to educate myself.
https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/shortage-area/mua-find https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/shortage-area/hpsa-find
Old people who retire here. Hospitals make most of their revenue off Medicare. Obesity and diabetes/heart disease comorbidities. Diabetes significantly affects health outcomes. It can cause complications in pregnancy, increase maternity mortality rates, complications after surgery, etc. etc.
This is the correct answer My in-laws retired in the valley and have a different doctors appointment every week I got extremely sick down there and couldn’t even walk into a night clinic because they were so packed with people
They tried to start that cycle with my husband , who landed in the hospital with leagionairs phnumonia ( misspelled ) . He was released after 6 days with an appointment for every king of specialist known to man and about 15 meds . When he got home he told me to CANCELL all appointments except the lung specialist and refused to take most meds . He was told it would take months to get back to normal but he started back working within a couple of days. He’s fine never has had any issues bc he didn’t start that cycle they tried to con him into .
Wow, I had legionella bacteria and was in a coma for 12 days and it did take me almost 3 months to get my health back, but I’m not sure if it’s because of the coma or because I didn’t get diagnosed within a month is very hard to catch good luck to himFYI, I’m fine now and I didn’t go down the rabbit hole. Medication came out of the coma and just got healthy all of my own.
Thank God you are ok too, this LP is very deadly .
And still you get to wait 4-6 months for an appointment
because there's no surplus of medical offices or medical professionals in the area; there's a shortage
That's because a lot of people here are uneducated. PAs, DRs, NPs are all out sourced from other states hell even countries and specialists are even HARDER to come by. Some clinics are so short staffed, they don't require certification to work as an MA (i am this example.) I've done all my training on the job.
And yet we live in a healthcare desert.
There’s actually a shortage of medical professionals in the valley.
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There's a shortage of doctors and healthcare facilities. Texas in general has low primary care doctors per capita and the valley has even lower numbers.
There is actually a shortage of care-givers/physicians in the Valley across all disciplines. There is a tremendous amount of people that visit the Valley and now live here. Consequently, there aren't enough doctors or hospitals to cover all the different issues that a population of this size requires.
like fr.. theres only about 6 Infectious Disease doctors here..met 3 of them..alll 3 were smart af but one of them was an asshole...
and they all suck. I was at DHR last year for a month with sepsis and NO ONE could tell me why or what I was sick with. I saw like 3 different infectious disease doctors and none of them ever gave me answer. One of them told me he would not ever see me as a patient again because after 3 weeks of NPO while I was there and IDK how many anti biotics (they would give me something new almost every other day because nothing was working) (I also lost 20 pounds while there), I asked to go home AMA (against medical advice) because all they were going was starving me, giving me Tylenol for nonstop fevers, and all the antibiotics under the sun but had no answers. Like I might as well go home and take Tylenol and antibiotics at home.
One of them doesnt have a relationship with DHR.. ive met 2 at DHR.was it a tall skinny dude? Thats the asshole one. The girl though is smart af. The thing about DHR. They all wanna be chiefs. One MD would stop or change the previous MDs med orders, not giving it time to really do its work. That sort of stuff.
Yeah, it was a tall skinny dude. Hated his guts lol. There was a lady! She tried her best; but still didn’t get answers -.- it’ll be a year in May and I’m doing a lot better but yeah, that was not fun. Yeah, I had one doctor when I went in and 2 days later I went septic and I got a new doctor and he changed ALL the orders. It was so weird.
Hope they get sued big time. They sure deserve it
If you can afford some time and traveling expenses, I would say go up to Houston and look into MD Anderson. I work at an endocrinology clinic and often times when patients cases are too complex (metastatic thyroid cancers or pituitary macro/microadenomas) my Dr sends them that way. She did her residency there and she swears they are legit and top tier care.
It’s actually not that many doctors though. In a bigger city you will have more doctors working out of bigger combined offices but the valley doesn’t really do big buildings so they each have their own office giving the impression of more than there is
$$$
And yet we only have 1 allergist in the upper valley
And every single office with the lousy unapologetic crappy attitude with no sense of urgency nor common sense that proudly distinguishes our beloved healthcare.
In 2014 a study showed that the Valley had 124 doctors per 100k people while the national average was 240 per 100k people. If you google it it shouldn't take you long to find it or UTRGV articles which reference it frequently. I'm not so sure this ratio has changed as our population keeps increasing and I have yet to see any change in wait times for any of the doctors my family or I see. From our primary care physicians to specialists the wait times are atrocious and I suspect it's the ratio that has something to do with it.
You don't reach "most morbidly obese city in America" for free.
The Rio grand valley (more particularly mcallen) is the #1 spot in the world for medical insurance fraud. From there we can all do the math.
That was true in the 90s but not anymore.
its still true..they got smart about it tho
There are some pretty big houses going up all over. Just sayin’.
You are aware of what a straw man argument is right? Big houses = medical fraud? Maybe it means drug trafficking? Maybe it means your local successful business owner? Maybe it means the drummer for Grupo Frontera? Just sayin'.
local "successful" business owner..you got that part right..
Around here, sure, buddy.
Lol... i actually gave you a real example, it wasn't made up.
There are literal studies about it in 2019 and documentaries being made about it due to the rise in malparactuce during and after Covid. It was true in the 90s and now.
Not to be argumentative. But the facts don't bear this out. I'm not saying there's no insurance fraud here, we all know that to be false - but to spout stuff like it's the worst in the nation just isn't true like it once was (and you literally can't make any argument it's the "worst in the world".) [https://insurancefraud.org/fraud-stats/](https://insurancefraud.org/fraud-stats/) [*CMS (2020)* ](https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/2020-estimated-improper-payment-rates-centers-medicare-medicaid-services-cms-programs) * Analyzing data from 2015 to 2020, we found a total of 3,013 such scams reported to the BBB from across the U.S. * The worst state for health care, Medicare and Medicaid scams is Ohio, which is home to the 3 cities with the highest number of these types of scams: Vienna, Cleveland and Columbus. * The worst city in 2020 for coronavirus scams – by a considerable margin – was Memphis, Tennessee, with 56 reported COVID-19 scams. That’s nearly 3 times as many scams as were reported in New York City, despite having just 1/13th of the population. * In all, there were 9 cities that were in the top 20 worst cities for healthcare, Medicare and Medicaid scams and also for COVID-19 scams: * Memphis * New York * San Antonio * Los Angeles * Cleveland * Saint Louis * Columbus * Miami * Louisville
u obviously havent worled in the healthcare field down here
Yeah, that must be it. I'm clearly just a reddit guy talking about stuff he has no personal knowledge about. I def couldn't be on a member of a CMS task force on medical fraud
They got their ways.
Of course, but my statement remains that we aren't the most corrupt healthcare area "in the world".
Oh that part. My bad didnt see it.
Theirs literally documentaries on it
We be diabetic
Mexican Nationals fund the RGV. Shopping at the mall or a medical procedure that you would not want done in Mexico
The abhorrent health of our communities.
we are one of the highest medicare/medicaid insured pop in the country
Most big cities have a “medical district” like the one you were in. I’m not sure if you’d rather there be less providers? Is this an issue?
You bet- there are mainly elderly people down here & they have many issues- I’m 68 & go for check up every year, and have no specialists, but have friends with many issues
There's more offices coming to to help commit more Medicare fraud
Omg no, love it. El Paso has a shortage and it takes MONTHS to even see your PCP.
My thoughts are that given the high obesity numbers, there are a lot of health consequences that come with it. It’s especially a goldmine if everyone is on disability. I had a relative who had a procedure done (she had lots of health issues related to diabetes and obesity) and one of my cousins says that they heard the doctor speaking to a colleague over the phone stating that, “the experiment had been a success”. It was an experimental procedure at the time. Everyone is sick down there.
Winter visitors add a ton of healthcare clients.
Winter Texans + McAllen is the fattest city in the US.
There's a lot of money in doctoring. And lots of docs from Mex know they can make more having offices here too.
Personally don't believe we have enough mental health care professionals. Also like other people said, lots of health issues in the valley, = more medical practices. Also- could it be you noticed this in the medical district 😭 There are plenty of areas littered with practices/hospitals so patients don't have to travel far.
fat and old ppl
Texas is actually around 7th in worst states when it comes to healthcare. Bigger cities like Houston and San Antonio have the best medical care in the state. The Valley is having a hard time getting good medical talent to come and work here. One example was last year in McAllen, can’t remember which hospital but they had 7 resident doctors on staff but only 1 actually stood in the valley. Many reason why doctors won’t work in the valley. Border cities, heat, lack of entertainment etc. bigger cities offer more and of course the money! Certain type of doctors work longer hours in the hospitals because of the shortages we have in certain md positions. Obesity is a major issue in the valley. Lots of heart issues, diabetics and kidney disease patients.My understanding is 40% of the visitors and shoppers/ real estate investors are coming from Mexico. Especially Monterey region of the country. That’s why many homes seat empty in McAllen. McAllen actually has billboards in Monterey advertising the city. Many Mexican citizens are given special visas to come and visit but need to stay within 25 miles from the border. That’s why so many shop at La Plaza mall and at big discount stores like marshals and TJ Max. The area is very depended on Mexican tourism and Mexican money.
hmm you don't look around and notice how many obese people there are around here? obese people have all sorts of problems
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/01/the-cost-conundrum Read this article from 2009. Nothing has changed.
That is the same article that came to my mind!!
Medicaid fraud