There are a number of reasons for the disparity, including higher rates of d diabetes, high blood pressure and diabetes. In fact, Chicago doctors found a “quiet epidemic” of kidney disease among that city’s Black residents. The disease is raging in a city’s South and Westside communities where Blacks are “suffering kidney failure and facing the possibility of blindness, limb amputation, life on dialysis and premature death,” The Chicago Tribune reports. It’s true that there are health issues beyond our control. The tragedy of M.C. Breed’s inability to find a suitable kidney donor in time is one of them. But more often, there are things we can do to limit our risk for the kidney disease, which is a debilitating disease that can lead to years of regular dialysis or make you too sick to work or do much else. Getting on top of the problems that lead to kidney disease is not easy. The simple solution is to try not to go down that road at all by exercising regularly, eating healthier and losing weight if that’s an issue for you. What’s tougher is to change the attitudes that prevent us from living healthier. But, it’s not impossible. It starts with the baby steps.  For more on kidney disease, go to the National Kidney Foundation site.

Here’s the bright spot.  The rate of Black young men in high school who have never smoked is higher than for Whites in the same age group, according to the Center for Disease Control’s teen smoking survey.  The same is true for those teens who’ve tried to quit. Bottom line is if you have never lit up, don’t. It’s an ugly habit that’s hard to put down and will eventually make you sick. If you are a smoker, the Great American Smokeout day is a good time to take a breather, literally. Maybe you will only last a day, or two. But you’ll feel better in the long run. You might need some tools.  For starters, build a support system of people who will encourage you to quit by giving you other things to do, like working out, health officials say. Use a buddy system, so you have someone to call when you get tested and want to light up.  Also, here’s a link to the American Cancer Society’ free online Quitting Tools. Tale the Smokeout Challenge here.

When compared to the amount of those nutrients the body gets naturally from what you eat, scientists found that the same nutrients taken in pill form didn’t work as a barrier to heart disease or cancer. The Physicians Health Study, which lead by Howard Sesso of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, tested the effect   of vitamins C and E on 14,641 male doctors, 50 or older, including 1,274 who had cancer when or before the study started in 1997. They were included so scientists could see whether the vitamins could prevent a second cancer. Doctors had hoped to prevent prostate cancer in the patients who took vitamin E, but they found that those patients had the same rate of cancer as the men who did not take the vitamin. The study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and several vitamin makers, has implications for young people and women as well, health officials say.

“Well-conducted clinical trials such as this are rapidly closing the door on the hope that common vitamin supplements may protect against cancer,” Marji McCullough, nutrition chief at the American Cancer Society, told HealthDay. “It’s still possible that some benefit exists for subgroups that couldn’t be measured, but the overall results are certainly discouraging. The American Cancer Society recommends getting these and other nutrients by eating a mostly plant-based diet with a variety of vegetables, fruits and whole grains. A bonus is that this type of diet helps to prevent obesity, which increases the risk of several cancers.” Bottom line: eat your fruits and veggies and watch your weight.

Dr. Tony Faucci of the National Institutes of Health, worries that people will read too much into the German scientists’ findings. He cautions that that only 1 percent of Whites and no Blacks have the gene defect (called a CCR5 receptor) that protects against the HIV virus. “You have to have someone who has this genetic defect [for it to work]. It’s only seen in 1 percent of White people and no African Americans. And the likelihood of having this transplant available to you is remotely small,” Faucci told a Washington reporter. “Our hope is that one day there will be a treatment for everybody, but this isn’t it.”

Posted Nov. 5, 2008

Posted Nov. 5, 2008 – What if I told you that teens are getting pregnant from watching TV? Sounds implausible, right? But there’s new information that shows that watching sex-laced TV can actually increase chances that girls will have unprotected sex and get pregnant. Males aren’t immune to media influence, either. The same researchers found that young people who play violent video games every free moment are more aggressive than those who don’t. Those are the findings of a new RAND study that looked at the behavior of young people between 10 and 15 years old over a three-year period. Taken at face value, the study seems like just another bunch of numbers that make parents look bad for not monitoring their children’s TV habits.

But, considering that nearly 1 million 15- to 19-year-old girls become pregnant each year – a disproportionate number of whom are African American girls – this study is not something to be taken lightly. “Our findings suggest that television may play a significant role in the high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States,” said Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist who led the research at RAND, a conservative nonprofit research group. “We’re not saying we’re establishing causation, but we are saying this is one factor that we were able to prospectively link to the teen pregnancy outcome.” Those who watched sexy TV doubled their risk of teen pregnancy, according to RAND. But it’s not the shows you think that have the most influence. Comedies were found to have the most sexual content and reality shows the least. “So if teens are getting any information about sex, they’re rarely getting information about pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases,” Chandra said. TV isn’t the only problem. The researchers said magazines, the Internet and music also play roles in shaping how young women see themselves and whether they will have risky sex. Still, there’s more evidence that says parents – and not the media – can be a bigger influence on whether teens have sex. So, have you spent time with a teen (or parent) lately? That could be the best deterrent to an early, unplanned pregnancy and derailed future.