A single drug can shrink or cure human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver, and prostate tumors that have been transplanted into mice, researchers have found. The treatment, an antibody that blocks a “do not eat” signal normally displayed on tumor cells, coaxes the immune system to destroy the cancer cells.
A decade ago, biologist Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, discovered that leukemia cells produce higher levels of a protein called CD47 than do healthy cells. CD47, he and other scientists found, is also displayed on healthy blood cells; it’s a marker that blocks the immune system from destroying them as they circulate. Cancers take advantage of this flag to trick the immune system into ignoring them. In the past few years, Weissman’s lab showed that blocking CD47 with an antibody cured some cases of lymphomas and leukemias in mice by stimulating the immune system to recognize the cancer cells as invaders. Now, he and colleagues have shown that the CD47-blocking antibody may have a far wider impact than just blood cancers.
“What we’ve shown is that CD47 isn’t just important on leukemias and lymphomas,” says Weissman. “It’s on every single human primary tumor that we tested.” Moreover, Weissman’s lab found that cancer cells always had higher levels of CD47 than did healthy cells. How much CD47 a tumor made could predict the survival odds of a patient.
To determine whether blocking CD47 was beneficial, the scientists exposed tumor cells to macrophages, a type of immune cell, and anti-CD47 molecules in petri dishes. Without the drug, the macrophages ignored the cancerous cells. But when the CD47 was present, the macrophages engulfed and destroyed cancer cells from all tumor types.
Good information!
By the way, I have an air popper that I use!
Check out this trailer:
Dick Gregory recently said that when his VEGAN daughter came down with fibroids, he warned her against relaxers. He was RIGHT!
I wish to God I had known this when I was being tormented with fibroids. Lord, have mercy.
Ladies, drop the relaxers. Heaven only knows what else those things are doing to women! Ironically, I just posted an article a few days ago about the fact that I was going natural. I’m spreading the word on this one.
For years, I was vegetarian, thinking that my fibroids were lined to diet. They were not. They were linked to the filth and garbage and lye in the relaxers!
MEN….show this article to your wives and daughters!
Why on earth are people drinking this type of stuff?
The Food and Drug Administration said on Monday that it was investigating reports of five deaths that may be associated with Monster Beverage Corp’s energy drink.
Monster is also being sued by the family of a 14-year-old girl who died after drinking two cans of its Monster Energy drink in a 24-hour period.
Monster said it does not believe its drinks are “in any way responsible” for the girl’s death.
“Monster is unaware of any fatality anywhere that has been caused by its drinks,” the company said in a statement. It said it intends to vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit.
The family of Anais Fournier filed a lawsuit on Friday against Monster for failing to warn about the product’s dangers.
FOUR out of five black women are seriously overweight. One out of four middle-aged black women has diabetes. With $174 billion a year spent on diabetes-related illness in America and obesity quickly overtaking smoking as a cause of cancer deaths, it is past time to try something new.
What we need is a body-culture revolution in black America. Why? Because too many experts who are involved in the discussion of obesity don’t understand something crucial about black women and fat: many black women are fat because we want to be.
So….are black women seeking morbid obesity? Do black women relish the idea of fat rolls all over their bodies?
I can answer that question in a word: No—at least not for sane sistahs.
The author of that article went on to site history, and the fact that some black men and women have historically embraced the larger frame.
Embracing a “phat” or “thick” frame is not the same as embracing morbid obesity. Let’s not get it twisted.
Here are some stats regarding black women’s health, other than the ones listed above.
Although they are less likely than white women to get breast cancer, black women are more likely to die from it. The difference in mortality began to emerge in the early 1980s. By 2007, according to the American Cancer Society, even though rates for both groups were going down, death rates were 41 percent higher among African American women than among white women.
African-American women develop high blood pressure earlier in life and have higher average blood pressures compared with white women. Some things increase your chances of having high blood pressure:
Increasing age (middle aged or older)
Diabetes
Obesity (or being overweight)
Alcohol use
Eating too much salt
A family history of high blood pressure
Not exercising
The statistics are sobering. African-American women are 35% more likely to die of heart disease than Caucasian women, while Hispanic women face heart disease nearly 10 years earlier than Caucasian women. Pacific Islander women, long considered at low risk, count heart disease as their second leading cause of death.
Obesity, high cholesterol, poverty, language barriers, physical inactivity, and lack of information all contribute to increased risk factors for women of color. A recent study found that minority patients may have poorer health because of disparities in health care, while another found that minority women were more likely to mistrust their health care provider. These are factors that make it difficult for women to gain control over their heart disease risk.
I could go on and on. But the diseases highlighted above are diet related in most instances. I do not believe that the average black woman is walking around proud to be obese or seeking out obesity.
I do, however, believe that the food being put in black communities is of lower nutritional value. And not everyone has a car to drive out to the ritzy communities to buy food. That’s at least part of the problem.
It is important not to embrace obese role models. Doing so will give young black girls the impression that it’s fine to walk around so fat that you cannot fit in a normal chair. So fat that you must purchase an extra airline seat. So fat that you cannot walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. So fat that you do not feel full unless you are eating an entire bucket of chicken with greasy fries on the side.
I do want to see more and more black women take pride in themselves. Too often black women are caught up in not having a decent man in their lives and depression sets in. Stress also sets in. Consequently, they eat and eat and eat to fill a space that only contentment and the Lord can truly fill. Food is a temporary fix.
Let’s all not accept the excuse of genetics. That’s a cop out. What does genetics have to do with a woman sitting down eating an entire pizza alone? And with a side order of onion rings and a diet coke (as though the diet coke will erase all the pounds that will be picked up by eating that pizza!)
Look at Gabourey Sidibe. I am concerned about her health and her heart.
If anyone thinks that she needs to have surgery to get rid of all that weight, think twice.
Look HERE and HERE at two black women who got over 100 pounds off their bodies and they did it the old fashioned way—exercise and better eating habits.
GO HERE to check out a website that caters to black women who have lost weight. And HERE is another good one.
Do black women want to be obese? In a word, NO. Not the normal ones, at least. But black women absolutely must take the bull by the horns and get healthy.
I love a challenge. And when my nephews told me that they were doing the insanity workout….and that it was tough, I immediately knew that I had to jump on board! My goal is to get some tight abs and to really tone my arms.
I made it through Day 1 (the fitness test) and am up for the challenge. It’s a 60 day program.
Anyone around here try it? And how did you do?
I recently enrolled in a Barre class. Barre is a combination of yoga, pilates and ballet exercises and you use a ballet barre for certain parts. Love the class. But I am only able to attend 3 times per week. During the remainder of the week, I have decided to exercise on my own (boring!) and (not motivating!).
Sooooo……I figured that if I found some great Youtube videos, I could keep up the exercising between classes. It was during my search for general exercise classes that I found Tiffany Rothe. I’m very sorry that she is not in my area because if she were, I’d join her classes. She is incredibly motivating and I love her workouts. I will do them on days when I don’t visit my exercise class.
The next best thing is her videos. Many are on Youtube for free. But to support this sister, I plan to purchase some also. Check her out! And feel free to list any great videos that you find helpful.
There is one sin that churches rarely deal with and that’s the sin of gluttony. I remember when T.D. Jakes lost so much weight. He has since gained it all back and then some. With diabetes on an all time high and with cancer rates and obesity through the roof, it’s time for churches to address the belly and the flesh in a very direct manner.
Philippians 3:19
New International Version (NIV)19
Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
To be fair, some churches are dealing with the issue of the plate and the belly and gluttony head-on:
The Rev. Grainger Browning, pastor of Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, said his Fort Washington, Md., congregation holds four health fairs each year to help parishioners.
“As our memberships get older, we are pastoring out of necessity because we see people who are literally digging their graves with their teeth,” Browning said. “I was at a men’s meeting, and 75 percent of the men at the meeting were on medications.”
He said he began to take his own health more seriously about 15 years ago after a fellow pastor had a heart attack.
“It shook me to the core,” Browning said.
Members of First Baptist Church of Highland Park in Landover, Md., can take advantage of classes in nutrition and Zumba exercise.
“I have run several marathons, and at my church we try to focus on the mind, body and soul,” the Rev. Henry P. Davis said.
Popular televangelist T.D. Jakes, pastor of the Potters House in Dallas, has been at the forefront of the health crusade in the black church.
“No matter how much talent you have in your mind and your spirit, if your body is not able to function, you are not able to fulfill your destiny,” Jakes said.
Jakes, 55, said he recently had to take time out from his busy ministry to address his weight.
“I gained some weight after back surgery,” he said. “I couldn’t exercise, but now I am back in the gym. I have dropped 45 pounds, and I want to drop about 30 more.
“We have to continue to create an atmosphere where people can talk openly about their issues and have healthy solutions. My father died when he was 48 and I was only 16, so I am bombarded with the reality that health can be a challenge.”
Jakes has health and fitness conferences planned for men and women in the coming months.