Evidence continues to accumulate that obesity leads to a higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and many cancers. Most recently, a Swedish study indicated that a high BMI or body mass index is associated with a higher risk of colon cancer. This comes as no surprise to Edward L. Giovannucci, MD, ScD, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. For more than a decade, he has been looking into the links between physical inactivity, obesity and colon cancer. The good news — losing just 5% to 10% of your body weight can lower your colon cancer risk, says Dr. Giovannucci.
BMI: A PRIMER
While not a perfect measure, BMI is an easy-to-use tool that quickly screens for excess weight that can correlate with dangerous health conditions. To learn your BMI, simply visit the Web site of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ and plug in your height and weight — your number will appear.
BMI categories are:
• Underweight = lower than 18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5 to 24.9
• Overweight = 25 to 29.9
• Obese = 30 or higher
This latest research demonstrates that people whose BMI puts them in the obese category experience as much as a 20% greater risk of colon cancer — but, of course, it’s not about BMI alone. There may well be a connection between the poor digestive and bowel health that results from poor eating habits. Waist circumference is another important risk factor for colon cancer, since abdominal fat or an “apple” shape is associated with obesity-related diseases. It’s important to note that while the correlation between BMI and body fat is strong, it is not perfect. Athletes have a high but healthful BMI because of their increased musculature… women tend to have more body fat than men with the same BMI… and older people typically have more body fat than young people with the same BMI.
LOWER YOUR BMI AND MAYBE ?COLON CANCER RISK TOO
Obviously, for optimal health, your goal should be a BMI in the “normal weight” category. If your BMI is edging up into the overweight or obese categories, make changes in diet and exercise now before it’s too late. According to Dr. Giovannucci, it’s especially important to prevent or minimize the weight gain that typically creeps up on us in middle age. He notes that even moderate activities such as regular brisk walking can help control weight gain and potentially reduce the risk of colon cancer.

Source(s): ??Edward L. Giovannucci, MD, ScD, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, and epidemiologist, department of medicine Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.

I am a black woman. Well my father is black (half black and half Japanese) and my mother is white. I have been passing for white all my life 35 years. I am the head of the french branch of a French American conglomerate.

Here in France, I have discovered my roots. When I return home I have decided that i will live as a black woman. I have never had a relationship with a black man. Any suggestions?

If it will matter. I am 5’4″ tall, 34-21-34. I have been told that I am very beautiful by both men and women. Frankly, I am very aware of the effect I have on both sexes.

I am not shy. But I am nervous about entering the social arena with black men. I am an only child. My mother is an only child and all my father’s relatives live in Japan or France. He is french, my mother is american.

I would also welcome advice from women who have or are having a relationship with a black man.

Melba

Just like the above comment, “some white men are bigots to all OTW’s some of the time, but ALL White Men are NOT mean to even some OTW’s even some of the time.”

I have not been simple enough in my comments to get to these simple points across. I have put my foot in my mouth many times because I have written too much, and avoided the simple truth about many things. As I have written and practice in my life daily, I am not a bigot nor a pussy in any way, or sense of those words.

I simply feel that any group can be stirred up by a Fanatical leader to say and do things they normally would not.

Sometimes one must be totally objective, which is terribly difficult to do, especially when emotions are involved, or name calling begins. This destroys the objectivity and brings on defensiveness and name calling to anyone – myself included many times.

I really agree with the idea that Women should always have been equal to Men and are, in my eyes. Not everyone agrees with this. Therefore the forum of conflicting beliefs.

I have been mistaken and misunderstood many times and would like to set the record straight.

This past year we have had a Woman running for President, a Woman running for Vice President, a Woman appointed as Supreme Court Justice and an OTW win the election for President. Can things be that wrong if these equal opportunities are happening right now?

One of my comments was taken out of context and all I meant was that Women have the equality to make it to the top in Politics and Law. There are some roads that need support to fight off the bigots who have been running things for so long. They want to keep it that way. Right or Wrong . . . Wouldn’t you?

Please see that I am 100% for equality of Women, OTW’s and any one else who feels slighted of their natural rights. Anyone who knows me in the flesh, knows that I believe in total equality and practice it too. I have a heart the size of Texas and this is the indelible truth.

HOWIE

I know you are reading this Al. Please return with that sass. But put a sock in the attacks on Michelle.

Looks like justice may be catching up with the bush administration. i found this on the web.
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Saturday, June 13, 2009 (SF Chronicle)
Judge: Ex-Bush lawyer can be sued over torture
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

A prisoner who says he was tortured while being held for nearly four years
as a suspected terrorist can sue former Bush administration lawyer John
Yoo for coming up with the legal theories that justified his alleged
treatment, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White’s decision marks the first time a
government lawyer has been held potentially responsible for the abuse of
detainees.
“Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible
for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct,” White said in refusing
to dismiss Jose Padilla’s lawsuit against Yoo.
If Padilla, now serving a 17-year prison sentence on terrorism charges,
can prove his allegations, he can show that Yoo “set in motion a series of
events that resulted in the deprivation of Padilla’s constitutional
rights,” White said.
White, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, noted that
Padilla’s lawsuit accuses Yoo of helping to design administration policy
on detention and torture, and then crafting legal opinions to justify it -
stepping outside the usual role of a lawyer.
Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, was an attorney in the Justice
Department’s Office of Legal Counsel from 2001 to 2003 and wrote a series
of memos on interrogation, detention and presidential powers.
The best-known memo, written to then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales
in 2002, said rough treatment of captives amounted to torture only if it
caused the same level of pain as “organ failure, impairment of bodily
function or even death.” The memo also said the president may have the
constitutional power to authorize torture of enemy combatants. ‘Any means
necessary’
A 2001 Yoo memo, made public by the Obama administration, said U.S.
military forces could use “any means necessary” to seize and hold terror
suspects in the United States.
Yoo could not be reached at his Berkeley office Friday. A spokesman for
the Justice Department, which is representing him and has argued for
dismissal of the suit, was unavailable for comment.
Padilla’s lawyers issued a statement saying they are “pleased that our
client will get his day in court and the right to challenge the
unconstitutional conduct to which he was subjected.” Unique ruling
John Eastman, law school dean at Chapman University in Orange County,
where Yoo taught for the past year, said the ruling is unique – the first
to hold any administration official potentially liable for alleged
mistreatment of terrorist suspects.
Eastman predicted that the Justice Department will file an immediate
appeal, going to the Supreme Court if necessary. Padilla, a U.S. citizen,
was arrested in Chicago in 2002 and accused by the Bush administration of
plotting with al Qaeda to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb.”
Declared an enemy combatant, Padilla was held in a Navy brig for three
years and eight months and was denied all contact with the outside world
for the first half of that period, his suit said. He was then taken out of
the brig and charged with taking part in an unrelated conspiracy to
provide money and supplies to Islamic extremist groups. He was convicted
and has appealed.
His suit against Yoo covers his time in the brig. He says he was detained
illegally, held for lengthy periods in darkness and blinding light,
subjected to temperature extremes and sleep deprivation, confined in
painful stress positions, and threatened with death to himself, harm to
his family and transfer to a nation where he would be tortured. Claims of
mistreatment
The suit said Yoo – who has acknowledged being a member of an
administration planning group known as the “war council” – personally
reviewed and approved Padilla’s detention in the brig and provided the
legal cover for his treatment.
At a hearing in March, Justice Department lawyer Mary Mason told White
that courts had no power to scrutinize high-level government
decision-making, especially in wartime.
But White said Friday that Padilla had a right to sue “the alleged
architect of the government policy” on enemy combatants. He said an
examination of Yoo’s publicly disclosed writings would not damage national
security, and an inquiry into “allegations of unconstitutional treatment
of an American citizen on American soil” would not affect foreign
relations.
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Lois