Jayson Williams gave oral to White girls, says wife. An ex-NBA star and former commentator who escaped a murder conviction has new troubles. Former Nets player Jayson Williams’ wife has filed for divorce, accusing him of physical and emotional abuse, family abandonment and bragging that he performed oral sex “on White girls.” Tanya Young Williams claims that her husband has threatened to kill her, faked a suicide and falsely claimed to have stomach cancer. Among the other allegations she makes is that the ex-baller once urinated in their home’s kitchen sink. Among other things, she wants sole custody of their children. Williams was charged with the 2002 shooting death of a limo driver, but he was not convicted. He reportedly killed the man accidentally, while playing with a shotgun. Williams could face trial again on reckless manslaughter charges.

Your tax dollars may be paying for unauthorized drugs. Tax dollars paid for $200 million in drugs that were never reviewed by the government for safety and effectiveness, an Associated Press investigation has found. The drugs give people a false sense of security, but they are also responsible for dozens of deaths, health officials say. Even so, millions of private patients who qualify for the low-income health care program are taking such drugs, and the government is picking up the tab, according to AP’s analysis of government data. The medications date back decades, before the Food and Drug Administration tightened its review process for drugs in the early 1960s, AP says. The FDA says it is trying to squeeze them from the market, but conflicting federal laws allow the drugs to the Medicaid health program to pay for them. Medicaid officials acknowledge the problem, but say they need Congress to fix loopholes in the laws that allow the unauthorized drugs to continue to qualify for payment.

Teen HIV rate jumps 45 percent in Central Ohio. The number of Central Ohio teenagers and young adults infected with HIV has mushroomed by 45 percent in three years, according to local figures. Of all the Franklin County women living with HIV, nearly three-quarters are African American. As dozens of countries commemorate World AIDS Day on December 1, Central Ohioans need to be reminded that the epidemic continues right here at home. The Ohio Department of Health reports that HIV infections in Central Ohio match the dramatic increases nationwide, especially in African Americans, youth, and women, local officials say. Between 2003 and 2006, the highest new infection rates in Central Ohio were among youth (ages 13-25), up nearly 45 percent. Infections among individuals ages 25-34 were up about 10 percent, and individuals ages 45-64 were up 13 percent. The number of new HIV infection diagnoses in the African American population jumped 22 percent. African American women are disproportionately affected, making up close to 75 percent of all women diagnosed in Franklin County. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than one million Americans are living with HIV. More than a quarter of them don’t even know they are infected. For more on HIV, what causes it, and whether your perceptions about the disease and people who have it are spot on or a little off, see the BET.com/Body & Soul feature “Are You Positive?”

 Young Black women have higher breast cancer rates. The incidence of breast cancer among African-American women under 40 is higher than for White women of the same age, according to the results of an analysis published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on Friday. The researchers studied more than 300,000 cases of breast cancer based on age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, racial and ethnic categories, and pathologic features of the cancer. They found that although White women had higher incidence rates than Black women after age 40, the reverse was true for younger women. In women under 40, the incidence rate per 100,000 woman-years was approximately 17 for Black women, compared with approximately 15 for white women. The discrepancy was even higher for women under age 30. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States, with about 180,000 cases diagnosed each year. Problems with early screening, which lead to later diagnoses, and access to care have negatively affected Black women’s survival rates, experts say. While mammogram breast screenings are generally advised for women age 40 and old, if the incidence of breast cancer in younger women continues to trend upward, health officials may have to identify either preventive or better screening approaches, including the identification of early risk factors, in younger women. Experts are also studying whether genetics play a role in the higher rates of breast cancer for younger Black women. For more info on breast cancer go to BET.com/lifestye/Body & Soul. 

Children who watch racy TV have sex earlier.  Exposure to some forms of TV leads teens who watch sexy programs into early pregnancies and children who play violent video games to adopt aggressive behavior, researchers said on Monday. The three-year study by the RAND research organization is the first to link viewing of racy television programming with risky sexual behavior by teens. “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 nonprofit research organization. “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,” Chandra said in a phone interview with the Reuters news organization. Teen pregnancy rates in the United States have dropped sharply since 1991 but remain high compared to other industrialized nations. Nearly 1 million girls between 15 and 19 years old, or about 20 percent of sexually active females in that age group, become pregnant yearly. Most of the pregnancies were unplanned, the report said. “Television is just one part of a teenager’s media diet that helps to influence their behavior. We should also look at the roles that magazines, the Internet and music play in teens’ reproductive health,” Chandra said, acknowledging still other factors can influence teen sex habits. Living in a two-parent family reduced the chances of a teen getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy. Black teenagers, and those with discipline problems, had higher risks, the report suggests. Researchers also suggested broadcasters provide more realistic portrayals of the consequences of sex and that parents limit their children’s access to sexually explicit programming.

Women are having sexual problems. Forty percent of women said they have sexual problems, but only 12 percent are distressed about it, according to a new study reported by HealthDay. “The good news is that 12 percent is a very different number than 40 percent,” said study author Dr. Jan Shifren, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Vincent Menopause Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston. But 12 percent of 83 million U.S. women ages 20 to 65 is still troublesome, researchers said in a related editorial in the November issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. The research was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim International, maker of flibanserin, a drug for female sexual dysfunction that is currently being tested in clinical trials. The study included almost 32,000 female respondents ages 18 and older. Overall, 43.1 percent of those surveyed reported some kind of sexual problem: 39 percent reported diminished desire; 26 percent reported problems with arousal; and 21 percent expressed problems achieving orgasm. Only 12 percent, however, reported significant personal distress associated with this problem.

. 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.

Women are the most stressed over the economy. If you’re biting your nails or feeling tired or simply stressed out more than ever, you’re not alone. A new study says that as many as 80 percent of Americans are stressed out over their personal finances and the economy. The top source of stress is worry over how to pay for everything, jobs and issues related to raising children,  according to the annual survey conducted by the American Psychological Association. “”This year, the jump was marked in that the No. 1 concern is both money and the economy,” Dr. Katherine Nordal, the association’s executive director for professional practice, told CNN.  ”In my 30 years of experience, in the past, this was not the thing that would be high in complaint lists. Most people are driven to counseling because of relationship problems with marriage and children, depression and anxiety. But what we’re seeing today is that the economy and finances are viewed as significantly more stressful, by more than eight out of 10 Americans. Nearly 7,000 Americans took the survey between April and September of this year. Within five months, anxiety about the economy had jumped from 66 percent to 80 percent. The poll was conducted before the passage of the $700 billion bailout bill last week and Monday’s stock market tumble. Half of the respondents in the survey said they are increasingly stressed about their ability to provide for their family’s basic needs. More than half, 56 percent, expressed concerns about job stability. This has translated into less productivity at work, because of anxieties about salary, heavy workload and job security.  Women are more worried than men, in terms of their personal finances, the economy, work, housing costs and job stability, the survey found. “The declining state of the nation’s economy is taking a physical and emotional toll on people nationwide, and it is women who are bearing the brunt of financial stress,” according to the survey. For simple ways to handle the stress, go BET.com/Body & Soul.
 

Don’t give children under age 4 cold meds. As cold season approaches, medical experts are warning parents not to give children over-the-counter cold meds. The reason: recent reports show such medications don’t work and may even cause health problems, says The Academy of Pediatrics. In fact, in some cases, children under the age of 2 have suffered adverse effects from cold medicine, including seizures and a rapid heart rate. The makers of cold and cough medicines also said yesterday that they will stop marketing over-the-counter remedies to children under 4 – acting amid an extensive federal review of whether the drugs are safe and effective for children under 12. Yesterday, the president of the group representing the makers of the products maintained that the medicines are safe and said the industry is making the change “out of an abundance of caution and in an effort to promote the safe and appropriate use of these medications.” The voluntary move by the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which includes Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth, Novartis AG and Procter & Gamble among its members, follows earlier recommendations that products be banned for children under 6, saying they don’t work and that the risks to kids outweigh the benefits. The Food and Drug Administration, which advises parents against giving such medicines to children under 2, said it supports the move by the industry even while it has undertaken a highly publicized evaluation of cough and cold medicines. The FDA has yet to give its own guidance but worries that parents would give adult doses if it instituted a ban of products for children under age 6.

Too few minorities could hurt science. Women, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and that the result could hurt the nation as a whole, a Fortune 1000 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) survey found. The findings of the study should alarm the next president of the United States, researchers said. Minorities could be the saving grace of America if this country is going to keep its place as the leader in the science and technology industry, the report noted. “What is most dramatic about this survey is the extent to which the Fortune executives speak with one unequivocal voice on these issues,” said Dr. Attila Molnar, president and CEO of Bayer Corporation. “Almost without exception, they overwhelmingly recognize this country’s great need to tap the potential of the entire [science and technology] talent pool, and the importance of doing so at every point on the development continuum beginning in elementary school with high-quality, hands-on, inquiry-based science education, on through college where … talent is refined and recruited, and then into the workplace where it must be further nurtured and encouraged.” Molnar and other executives believe that African Americans are being exposed to science at an early enough age to pique student’s interests. Chicago native Dr. Mae Jemison, who was also the first African-American woman to travel into outer space, agrees and said more has to be done to find talent in the Black community. The report further stated that diversifying the STEM talent pool is one solution to the problem of understaffing. Nearly 55 percent of the Fortune executives say their companies are experiencing a shortage of science and technology talent. Almost nine in 10, 89 percent, agree that bringing more women and minorities into science fields will help solve this issue. Moreover, diversity has other benefits for science and tech companies, according to the executives, including increasing innovation and the ability to be more competitive in the global marketplace.Women’s birth size could be tied to cancer risk. Women who are heavier and longer at birth are at increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life, British researchers report. In fact, as birth weight and length increases, so does the risk for breast cancer, according to the results of a study published in the Sept. 30 online edition of PLoS Medicine. “These researchers have documented in unequivocal terms that larger birth size is associated with increased breast cancer risk several decades later,” said Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, the Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention at Harvard University School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology and author of an accompanying journal editorial. Birth size reflects, to a considerable extent, the effects of the environment within the womb on the fetus, Trichopoulos said. “To this day, they had not been sufficiently appreciated by the scientific community, because each individual study could not provide conclusive evidence. We are facing now a new reality: that breast cancer has its origins several decades before its clinical appearance,” he said. After gathering data from 32 studies on more than 600,000 women, 22,058 of whom had breast cancer, the researchers found that women who were heavier and longer at birth had increased risk for breast cancer as adults, HealthDay reported. An analysis of birth records, among these women, found that for every 17.6 ounces of birth weight, the risk for breast cancer increased 7 percent. After gathering data from 32 studies on more than 600,000 women, 22,058 of whom had breast cancer, the researchers found that women who were heavier and longer at birth had increased risk for breast cancer as adults, HealthDay reported. An analysis of birth records, among these women, found that for every 17.6 ounces of birth weight, the risk for breast cancer increased 7 percent. In addition, birth length and head circumference were also associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. The strongest association between size at birth and an increased risk for breast cancer was seen for birth length, the researchers reported. “Recognition of early life influences are critical in the etiology of breast cancer and helps to explain why several adult life primary prevention practices – as distinct to secondary prevention ones focusing on early detection – have been of limited effectiveness,” Trichopoulos said.” Prevention of breast cancer needs to take into account the very long natural history of the disease,” he added. Some good news for breast cancer survivors. Vital Signs: As we embark on another Breast Cancer Awareness month, there’s at least some good news to report. There can be life, apparently a high-quality life, after breast cancer treatment, a new survivors report says. Vital Signs has more.

Women of Color have become the new faces of abortion.

Fewer White childless teens are not opting to terminate their pregnancies as much as teenagers and mothers of color in their 20s and 30s, says a new report from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. In the first comprehensive study since 1974 of demographic characteristics of women who have abortions, researchers found that the overall drop in the abortion rate has been marked by a dramatic shift – a greater decline among White women and teenagers than among Black and Hispanic and older women. “There’s been a real change in the picture of women who get abortions,” Rachel Jones, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a private nonprofit reproductive health research organization considered to be one of the most authoritative sources on abortion trends, told The Washington Post. Jones and her colleagues looked at yearly numbers collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by periodic surveys that Guttmacher has conducted of abortion providers between 1974 and 2004. The analysis confirmed previous reports that the abortion rate fell to the lowest level since 1974, dropping 33 percent from a peak of 29 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 in 1980 to 20 per 1,000 in 2004. During that period, the proportion of abortions obtained by women younger than 20 dropped steadily, falling from 33 percent in 1974 to 17 percent in 2004. For those younger than 18, it fell from 15 percent of all abortions in 1974 to 6 percent in 2004. At the same time, the proportion of abortions obtained by women in their 20s increased from 50 percent to 57 percent, and the share done for women age 30 and older rose from 18 percent to 27 percent. Although abortion rates have declined among all racial and ethnic groups, large disparities persist, with Hispanic and Black women having the procedure at rates three to five times the rate of White women. In 2004, there were 10.5 abortions per 1,000 White women ages 15 to 44, compared with 28 per 1,000 Hispanic women of that age and 50 per 1,000 Black women. That translates into approximately 1 percent of White women having an abortion in 2004, compared with 3 percent of Hispanic women and 5 percent of Black women. Jones attributed that to the focus on reducing teenage pregnancy and on increasing contraceptive use. The proportion of all abortions performed for White women decreased from 45 percent in 1994 to 34 percent in 2004, while the proportion for Hispanics increased from 16 percent to 22 percent and the proportion for Black women rose from 35 percent to 37 percent.Low white blood may be tied to Black cancer survival rates. There’s a strong connection between women of African descent from the U.S. and Caribbean, who are otherwise healthy, and the prevalence of neutropenia, or low white blood count, say researchers from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at the school’s Medical Center. Neutropenia’s may affect the poor outcomes of cancer or other illnesses, reports ScienceDaily. Among women of African descent who develop a malignancy, the presence of low white blood count may explain why treatments for some diseases don’t work as well as they should, the researchers say. “The goal of our study was to learn as much as we could about the association between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), which creates a person’s unique DNA sequence, and low White blood cell counts,” said Victor, R. Grann, MD, professor of Epidemiology and Health Policy and Management at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and study lead author. In addition to prevalence in African and Afro-Caribbean populations, about 25 percent of all Blacks in the United States, including those from other origins, are neutropenic. Women from the Dominican Republic were found to have higher median white blood counts than all other groups. In an earlier study the Columbia researchers found that low white blood count may delay or prevent the completion of appropriate chemotherapy, especially among women receiving treatment after surgery for breast and colon cancer, and could affect cancer survival. “We found that women of African descent with early-stage breast cancer had lower baseline WBC (White blood count) and longer duration of adjuvant chemotherapy than non-Hispanic White women,” said Dawn Hershman, M.D., Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Columbia University Medical Center, co-director of the Breast Cancer program of the HICCC, and senior author of the study. “Black women were more likely to miss cycles of chemotherapy and had poorer survival than White women which could be related to lower WBC among other factors.”

Vital Signs: Vital signs New abortion numbers show an alarming trend. Vital signs looks at the “why” behind the new abortion numbers. Read and comment here.

U.N., Afghan observers say scores of women and children were killed

New evidence appears to back up claims by the United Nations and Afghanis who contend that a U.S. raid killed some 90 civilians, including scores of women and children in the western Afghanistan village of Azizabad . The Associated Press reported Monday that it had obtained two grainy videos – apparently taken by cell phones – of the grisly scene. According to AP, the video shows “bodies lying side-by-side on the mosque floor, covered by floral-patterned blankets and Black-and-White checkered shawls. One young boy lay curled in a fetal position; others looked as though they were asleep. One child had half its head blown off. Turbaned men walked around, gently lifting the blankets covering the faces of the dead. At least two elderly men were among the dead. There appeared to be several dozen bodies lying on the mosque floor, though a precise count was difficult because of the poor quality of the images.” While the videos are not definitive proof that 60 children were killed in the raid, they do seem to contradict the Pentagon’s assertion that 35 militants and only seven civilians were killed in Azizabad.

Nigerian who married 86 women could face death penalty. The Nigerian man, who gained international fame in recent weeks for having 86 wives, could face the death penalty, reports the BBC. The country’s Islamic authority, Jamatu Nasril Islam, told 84-year-old Mohammed Bello Abubakar that he had to choose only four wives and repent within three days to avoid being sentenced to die. Abubakar, a former teacher and Muslim preacher, lives with his wives and at least 170 children. According to many Muslims, up to four wives are allowed as long as they’re treated equally. But Abubakar (obviously) disagrees. “To my understanding the Koran does not place a limit and it is up to what your own power, your own endowment and ability allows,” he told the BBC. “God did not say what the punishment should be for a man who has more than four wives, but he was specific about the punishment for fornication and adultery.” He also says God gives him the power to handle that many. “A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 or them,” he said. The authority made the decision based on Sharia law, which has had its punishments reintroduced in the predominately Muslim state of Niger, in the last eight years. While there have been people sentenced to death for adultery under Sharia, none of them have actually been carried out.

.
Dog protects baby abandoned by teen mom. A dog showed its motherly instincts by sheltering an abandoned newborn – along with its own six puppies – in 37-degree weather in Argentina, reports CNN. A man called the police to his house near La Plata (a rural part of the country) when he heard cries from a baby in a field near his house. When he went outside, he saw the baby lying alongside the dog and its six puppies, says a police official. “She took it like a puppy and rescued it. The doctors told us if she hadn’t done this, he would have died,” Daniel Salcedo, chief of police of the Province of Buenos Aires told CNN. “The dog is a hero to us.” It seems as if the dog carried the baby 50 meters from the place he was left by his 14-year-old mother to where her puppies were. The baby, a boy only a few hours old, was found to be in general good shape when examined by the hospital, says Dr. Egidio Melia, director of the Melchor Romero-Hospital in La Plata. The baby’s mother, who was driven to the hospital by a neighbor, claimed the baby as hers the next morning. She was then given psychological care and hospitalized, said Melia. The baby has since been transferred to a children’s hospital.

Lack of pre-natal care doesn’t explain all.
More Black women Die in childbirth. A medical group looking into why more Black women die of pregnancy-related complications in New York state hit a setback. A group of hospitals which serve the largest number of Black patients pulled out of the study, saying they already report to a number of monitoring groups. For more than two years, a voluntary maternal mortality review conducted in the state has been struggling with its own life-and-death problem: the disappearance of New York City hospital participation. The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation – a coalition of city-owned care and treatment facilities that represent a large portion of the city’s maternal deaths along with the largest population of African-American patients – backed out of the review process. As a result Donna Montalto, who heads the New York state review, says a report due out in 2009 won’t have enough hospitals participating to make a meaningful analysis of maternal deaths in the state. The fact that the city’s hospitals with the largest number of Black patients will be missing is especially damaging to the study, officials say. Montalto is now working with the Healthcare Association of New York State, an association of the state’s hospitals, to educate and encourage all hospitals to participate. As many as 139 women died from pregnancy-related complications in New York between 2003-2005. But in 2004, Black women were nearly four times as likely to die in childbirth as White women nationwide, and had a maternal death rate of 34.7 per 100,000 live births compared to 9.3 deaths per 100,000 live births for White women. New York City leads all other U.S. cities in the number of maternal mortalities, and between 1989 and 1998, the state had the highest rate of maternal mortalities per 100,000 live births — 28.7 — in the nation, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 1999. one chart shows that Black women with adequate prenatal care died at a rate comparable to that of white women with inadequate prenatal care — which hints at a medical mystery a small field of researchers are trying to explain. While some analysts emphasize a lack of health care and poverty to explain high maternal mortality rates among Black women, newer studies have indicated that regardless of a Black woman’s income and education levels, Black women are more likely to die having a baby than white and Latina women. Now, a network of progressive experts is trying to pinpoint how stress and racism places Black mothers and their children at greater harm in the ward. Still, Montalto says most Black mothers in the study did not have continuous prenatal care and this is an urgent part of the picture.