Men – particularly Black men – who pile on the pounds as they get older put themselves at greater risk of prostate cancer, a new study shows. After following almost 84,000 middle-aged and older U.S. men for close to a decade, researchers discovered that White and Black men who had gained weight since the age of 21 had a higher risk of developing prostate cancer. But, compared with White men who gained fewer than 10 pounds, those who gained more had twice the risk of being diagnosed with advanced or aggressive prostate cancer. Among Black men, the risks began increasing after a 25-pound weight gain – though the link was seen only with early-stage and less-aggressive prostate tumors, and not advanced cancer. “These results do not warrant a change in the current public health messages about obesity,” Dr. Elizabeth A. Platz, another researcher on the work and an associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said in a written statement. “Men of normal weight in all racial/ethnic groups should be encouraged to avoid weight gain,” she said, “and men who are overweight and obese should be encouraged to lose weight for good health in general.”

 Could being overweight play a role in one’s susceptibility to swine flu? Researchers say that some cases of the H1N1 virus in Michigan suggest that obesity could explain why some people who get infected get so sick. On Friday, a report detailed the cases of 10 very ill swine flu patients in Michigan. Three of them died. All but one of the 10 were either obese or extremely obese, and only three of them had other health problems. Two of the three that died had no other health conditions, CNN reported. “Clinicians need to be aware that severe complications can occur in patients with the novel H1N1 virus, particularly in extremely obese patients,” said Dr. Tim Uyeki, a flu expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Uyeki was a co-author of the report, released by a CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. But, even though most of those who have gotten severely ill from swine flu have been obese or extremely obese, health officials note that it could be due to the fact that overweight people are more likely to have asthma and other maladies that make them more susceptible. Obesity alone has never been seen as a risk factor for seasonal flu, they note. Last week, federal officials announced that the U.S. government is ready to spend another $1 billion in orders for swine flu vaccinations.

Body mass index (BMI), a formula that calculates a person’s body fat using his weight and height, may be responsible for inaccurate health assessments in African-American populations, a new study reveals. “The number used to indicate weight category does not reflect the same amount of body fat for some races compared to others,” according to senior authors of a forthcoming article in British Journal of Nutrition. “The results are consistent with other studies that say BMI is inexact and should be tailored to help target those at risk.” BMI is used to determine weight categories: 18.5 and below is considered underweight; 18.6 to 24.9 healthy; 25 to 29 overweight; and 30-plus obese. “This scale was created years ago and is based on Caucasian men and women,” says Dr. Molly Bray, associate professor of pediatrics and nutrition at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. “It doesn’t take into account differences in body composition between genders, race/ethnicity groups, and across the lifespan.” Rather than basing conclusions on potentially biased methods, the researchers used dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, a low dose X-ray known as DXA, to determine percent fat.  DXA can be used to estimate bone density, lean mass and fat mass. “When the two results were compared, researchers found that the DXA estimate of percent fat of African-American women was 1.76 percent lower for the same BMI compared to non-Hispanic white women,” Baylor College of Medicine says in a news release. “Since BMI is assumed to represent body fatness, an African-American woman would not be considered overweight or obese until she reached a higher number than what is indicated by the current BMI standards. The opposite is the case for Hispanic, Asian and Asian-Indian woman. Their percent fat is higher by 1.65 percent, 2.65 percent and 5.98 percent, respectively. So they would be considered overweight or obese at amounts lower than what the BMI standards indicates. The results for men were similar.” Says Bray: “Right now non-Hispanic white women are not considered obese until they have a BMI of 30 or above.  Based on our data in young adults, for Hispanic women the number would be around 28. For African-American women, the number to cross is around 32.”

There’s another reason – perhaps the most compelling of all – to cut your weight. A new study shows that obesity can take years off your life.  “If you are heading towards obesity, it may be a good idea to lose weight,” said Sir Richard Peto, the study’s main statistician and a professor at Oxford University. He is among a group of British researchers at the University of Oxford who analyzed 57 studies – mostly in Europe and North America – following nearly a million people for an average of 10 to 15 years. Roughly 100,000 of those people died over the period, The Associated Press reports. To determine obesity, the researchers used the Body Mass Index (BMI), which divides a person’s weight in pounds by their height squared in feet. What they discovered is that death rates were lowest in people who had a BMI of 23 to 24, on the high side of the normal range, AP reports. The study was published online Wednesday in the medical journal, Lancet. According to AP, “Peto and colleagues found that people who were moderately fat, with a BMI from 30 to 35, lost about three years of life. People who were morbidly fat — those with a BMI above 40 — lost about 10 years off their expected lifespan, similar to the effect of lifelong smoking. Moderately obese people were 50 percent more likely to die prematurely than normal-weight people.”

Turns out that calories might not be the main reason for obesity. In a new study, researchers from Loyola University Health System compared Black Chicago women to women in rural Nigeria. What they found was that, on average, the Chicago women weighed 184 pounds to Nigerian women’s 127 pounds. What the researchers expected to find was that the Nigerian women were more physically active. Not so. In fact, what they discovered is that there is no significant difference between the two groups in the amount of calories burned during physical activity. “Decreased physical activity may not be the primary driver of the obesity epidemic,” said Loyola nutritionist Amy Luke, an associate professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. U.S. government guidelines call for at least 2 ½ hours of moderate aerobic activity (such as brisk walking) or 75 minutes of vigorous activity (such as jogging) each week. Adults also should do muscle-strengthening activities, such as weight-lifting or sit-ups, at least twice a week. Such activity not only strengthens bones and muscles, but it improves mental health and mood, lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol levels and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer. But Luke and her cohorts found that weight control might not be among the main benefits. Although people definitely burn more calories when they exercise, they compensate by eating more, says Richard Cooper, Ph.D., co-author of the study and chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. “We would love to say that physical activity has a positive effect on weight control, but that does not appear to be the case,” Cooper said.

Feds join women’s civil rights group to fight obesity. The National Institutes of Health and the National Council of Negro Women have teamed up to fight childhood obesity in African-American youths. Black children have the highest rate of childhood obesity, according to federal health figures. The We Can Program hopes to get young people, ages 11 to 13, information that can help them eat better and exercise more. We Can! is a national program designed for families and communities to help children maintain a healthy weight. The program focuses on improved food choices and increased physical activity. Get more on We Can!
Got a pacemaker? Headphones could be dangerous. For all those aging boomers, there are warnings that if you listen to music with magnetized earphones and have a pacemaker you’d better take precautions. Research presented at an American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans found the magnets in headphones, not the actual music players, could interact with implanted cardiac devices. Dr. William H. Maisel, senior author of the study and director of the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston, said researchers tested eight different models of MP3 player headphones with iPods on 60 defibrillator and pacemaker patients, the AHA said Sunday in a release. “We placed the headphones on the patients’ chests, directly over where their devices are located, monitoring them for evidence of an interaction,” Maisel said. They found detectable interference in 15 percent of the pacemaker patients and 30 percent of the defibrillator patients.  The researchers said people listening to portable music devices should keep their earphones in a pocket or elsewhere away from their chests when they are not in use.

HPV virus is linked to 25,000 cancers over five years. The human wart virus  known as HPV caused 25,000 cases of cancer in the United States between 1998 and 2003, including not only cervical cancer but also anal and mouth cancers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Monday.  The study suggests the need for screening of both men and women to be expanded for human papillomavirus, or HPV, said another team of researchers, who did a similar study. HPV includes about 100 different viruses, and they are the leading cause of cervical cancer. The viruses, transmitted sexually and by skin-to-skin contact, can also cause anal and penile cancers, as well as cancers of the mouth and throat. HPV also causes common warts. Both Merck and Co. and GlaxoSmithKline make vaccines against some of the strains of HPV most strongly linked with cervical cancer, but not all. The vaccines are recommended for girls and young women who have not yet become sexual activity.  ”Currently available HPV vaccines have the potential to reduce the rates of HPV-associated cancers, like oral and anal cancers, that are currently on the rise and for which there is no effective or widely applied screening programs,” the CDC’s Dr. Mona Saraiya, who led the study, said in a statement. “This gives us baseline data to measure the impact of HPV vaccine and cervical cancer screening programs in reducing the incidence of cervical cancer and other HPV-associated cancers… .”

Sleep is seen as the newest obesity fighter. Consistently getting a good night’s sleep may help protect children from becoming overweight adults, a study published Monday suggests. Researchers found that among more than 1,000 people followed from birth to age 32, those who got too little sleep as children were more likely than their well-rested counterparts to become obese adults, Reuters News reports. The link between sleep deprivation during childhood and obesity risk later in life held up even when the researchers figured in things like the impact of a child’s weight or TV habits, and adulthood exercise level. All of this supports the idea that early sleep habits have a direct effect on weight in the long term, according to Dr. Robert John Hancox, the study’s senior author. “Although we cannot prove that this is a cause-and-effect relationship,” he told Reuters Health, “this study provides strong evidence that it probably is.”

Eating more fish can help you control diabetes. Centering your dinner around a fish dish at least twice a week might help people with diabetes lower their risk of kidney disease, a study suggests. In the November issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, British researchers analyzed the records of more than 22,300 middle-aged and older English men and women who were part of a large European cancer study to determine the effect of fish on kidney disease. What they found is that of the 517 study subjects who had diabetes (most of whom had type 2), those who on average ate less than one serving of fish each week were four times as likely to have albumin in their urine than people with diabetes who ate fish twice a week. Adler speculates that the nutrient content of fish may affect kidney function and improve blood glucose control. But the researchers could not say what type of fish had the biggest impact, reports USA Today.To get more help with diabetes, go to BET.com/Body &Soul.

Diabetes rates nearly double. New cases of diabetes nearly doubled over the last decade in the United States, a trend made worse by high rates of obesity and inactivity in the South, a study of 33 states found. The U.S. rate of diabetes increased to 9.1 cases for every 1,000 people in 2005-2007, up from 4.8 in 1995-1997, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s study. It’s the first study to describe the cases by geographic region, the agency said. Diabetes is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States and can lead to heart diseases, blindness, kidney failure and amputation, according to the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency. More than 23 million Americans have diabetes, and last year about 1.6 million new cases were diagnosed in people 20 or older, the CDC reports. African Americans are twice as likely to get diabetes as Whites, according to federal health figures. Studies have shown that obesity, idleness and too much sugary soda and fruit juice can increase risk of contracting the disease. For more on diabetes, go to BET.com/Body & Soul.

Voters: Major changes are needed in U.S. Health Care.  Seven in 10 registered voters say major changes are needed in the U.S. health care system, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and the Kaiser Family Foundation say. “Voters want a major change in health care,” said Robert J. Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health, in the second article of a series of reports published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). “But a new administration is going to have to face the very real divide that exists between McCain and Obama supporters on the shape of future reform,” Blendon added. Health care is a major economic worry for many families, the researchers say. “People are having major problems getting and paying for health care and, if this trend continues, addressing health care as part of the nation’s economic turmoil may be a priority for the nation’s next president,” said Drew Altman, Kaiser president and CEO. While voters are dissatisfied with the current health care system, they have very different views about how the next president should fix it, particularly those who say they plan to vote for Sen. John McCain versus those intending to vote for Sen. Barack Obama. When asked to choose the most important issue relating to their vote choice, health care ranked second among Obama voters and tied for fourth among McCain voters. Further, while a large majority of voters favor changes in health care, supporters of the two candidates differ greatly on how to do it or how much of a change is necessary, the researchers found. The findings, however, confirm what surveys have shown in the past: that there is wide support for a variety of approaches to health care reform, though there may not be agreement on the best way to move forward.

. People who eat too many sweet foods increase their obesity risk, a new study found. Eating too much fructose – a sugar found in foods ranging from cookies to candies and soda – can block the appetite-controlling hormone leptin from doing its job and increase the risk of obesity, a University of Florida study of rats suggests. Leptin resistance has long been linked to obesity, and a number of studies have shown that eating too many sugary foods laced with the corn-based sweetener may be an important factor in the United States’ obesity epidemic. This new study is the first to link fructose and leptin resistance, reports HealthDay.

The gap is growing between Black and White Chicago women dying from breast cancer.  Since 1980, when Black and White women in Chicago with breast cancer were equally likely to die, the death rates for White breast cancer patients have dramatically improved. But Black women have seen no such improvements, and in fact are dying at 116 percent higher rates than Whites in Chicago, according to new numbers released Wednesday by the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force. In fact, the gap has widened, the report says. Last year, the group analyzed data through 2003 and found a 68 percent higher death rate for Black women over those of Whites. Experts say genetics or biology alone cannot explain the difference. The racial gap in Chicago was twice that of the United States and sevenfold that of New York City, according to the researchers, who were from Sinai Urban Health Institute and who looked at vital records through 2005, obtained from the Illinois Department of Public Health. “It was as if no screening or treatment was going on for black women, which we knew was not true,” said Dr. David Ansell, chairman of the task force, made up of 74 health-care groups and more than 100 breast cancer physicians, researchers and advocates. Black women are less likely to get mammograms, the task force says. When they do, the mammograms are more likely to be of inferior quality. Those diagnosed with cancer also are less likely to have access to quality treatment. For more on Black women and breast cancer go to BET.com/Body & Soul.

High blood pressure is on the rise. Increasingly, more Americans are being diagnosed and treated for high blood pressure, recent studies by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute have shown. High blood pressure, by itself, can cause major problems, and is a known risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Also, high blood pressure is diagnosed in obese patients. The institute’s numbers were collected from two National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys, done between 1988 and 1994, respectively 1999 and 2004. After analyzing the data and interpreting the results, the researchers found that women experience higher blood pressure after the age of 40, and men after the age of 60. In the decade prior to 2004, Americans experienced a 5.2 percent increase in high blood pressure cases. However, in the 30,781 cases studied, 72 percent knew they had the disease, 61 percent were in treatment and 35 percent were able to keep their blood pressure in check.

Robin Roberts had an “all-time low” after chemotherapy.  While undergoing chemo treatments for breast cancer, Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts says she reached an all-time low.  “I was in a really bad place,” she tells PEOPLE. “I didn’t want to fake it [on TV].”  Roberts, 47, decided to take off the last three weeks of the year – the longest break she had taken since her diagnosis last July. “I needed more rest. It was too much,” she says, especially given her grueling up-before-dawn work schedule. “I don’t recommend anyone going through chemo get up at 4 a.m.”  By December, the treatment had become an emotional drain. “I was mourning the loss of my health,” says Roberts. But she rebounded quickly after her year-end respite. “I think taking long walks really helped,” she says. “And I circled Jan. 10, the day of my last chemo treatment, on the calendar so I had a goal, an end in sight.”

Two of every three Black men are overweight. Two of every three men, four out of five women and one in five children in the Black community are overweight, according to the  50 Million Pound Challenge, which seeks to reduce obesity and encourage healthy lifestyles in the Black community.  Fitness expert and physician Ian Smith said he began the program last year to provide a “national platform” for healthier living among Blacks, reports The Washington Post.  Smith said that the campaign’s challenge for 50 million pounds of weight loss can be met if 25 percent of the 20 million Blacks in the United States who are considered overweight or obese each lost 10 pounds (Kaiser Health Disparities Report, 4/5/07). More than 690,000 people across the nation have joined the challenge since April 2007, and almost three million pounds have been lost. Smith said, “What we are trying to do is not only to get people to lose weight, but to get them to take a better look at the choices that are directly impacting their physical and spiritual health.” He added, “Poor lifestyle choices and cultural entrenchments have, unfortunately, made African Americans extremely vulnerable to a wide range of diseases that are in many cases life-threatening.”