August 2008 Archives
By Kenneth J. Cooper
If it wasn't, "We Are Family" should have been declared the official theme song of the Democratic convention. The tune was played often enough, and its unifying message fits Barack Obama's call for Americans to come together, despite differences of race, class, region or party.
That was the obvious political message Democrats were trying to send. A subtler one was resonating with some portion of half the nation's voters. "We Are Family" is a 1970s tune by Sister Sledge about sisters being together.
So apt for a national political convention where women were more prominent than ever before. The first night's biggest speech was Michelle Obama's, the second's was Hillary Rodham Clinton's. Only a single speech by a woman, Geraldine Ferraro's as the vice presidential nominee in 1984, compares in the amount of public attention either received.
From the podium in Denver, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi guided official business with light taps of her gavel. Memorial tributes to Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who died last week in Cleveland, flowed from Hillary Clinton and other speakers. For the first time, women made up a majority of the party's convention delegates.
Lesser-known women rose to score political points for the party. The curiously-named Quincy Lucas, a black teacher from Delaware, offered her senator, Joe Biden, as the nominee for vice president. She began, stiffly, by noting her sister had been killed by an ex-boyfriend five years ago. Why did she start with a personal tragedy? Biden, she pointed out, wrote the Violence Against Women Act to combat domestic violence.
A humble "grandmother from Alabama," Lily Ledbetter, conceded in her drawl that she was a surprising choice to speak at the convention. She told how, after years as a supervisor at a Goodyear plant, she learned she had long been paid less than men doing the same job. She sued, and won, until the Supreme Court ruled last year she should have sued within six months of the first pay disparity--even though she didn't know about it.
Ledbetter called for equal pay for equal work, a cause usually associated with feminists who are younger and from big cities like New York or San Francisco. To hear it from a retired white woman from Alabama busted up that stereotype.
Women carried much the party's message on the big issue of health care. Their stories about people struggling with health problems carried an emotional load that the same anecdotes, if told by men, would not. Who, after all, usually cares for a sick child or, for that matter, a parent?
Perhaps the most touching passage in Michelle Obama's speech was remembrance of her father, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in his 30s but coped for years without complaint.
"As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk. It took him longer to get dressed in the morning," she recalled. "But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing, even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier and worked a little harder."
Hillary Clinton related a memorable meeting at a campaign stop. "I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two kids with autism, didn't have health insurance and discovered she had cancer," Clinton recalled. "But she greeted me with her bald head painted with my name on it and asked me to fight for health care."
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter from New York decried the millions without health insurance after reading aloud this letter from a Nevada woman: "My husband has Parkinson's and was forced to retire. He has been on disability for three years and Medicare doesn't meet his prescription needs. I have to pay my own insurance premium so our Medicare expenses are quite high. Our health care system doesn't work."
Women played a major role in showing the party has family values--and doesn't just talk about them, in the intolerant way conservative Republicans do.
Cameras showed Michelle Obama in tears as she listened to Beau Biden, Delaware's attorney general and the senator's son, talk about being a little boy when his biological mother and a sister were killed in a car accident--as the mother was taking her children to buy a Christmas tree.
After her speech, Michelle Obama walked daughters Malia and Sasha over to a video screen where Barack Obama appeared. The girls called him "Daddy." That night technology united a family separated by 600 miles.
White TV commentators rushed to put the family into a context viewers would grasp, comparing the Obamas to the only Kennedys ever to live in the White House, or the Huxtables on the Cosby Show. That a metaphor was needed at all suggests the commentators, and many white viewers, have trouble seeing the Obamas as individuals or recognizing them as an ordinary family with educated parents and happy children.
They're a family, an American family.
Kenneth J. Cooper is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
 In her speech at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama disclosed that her father, Fraser Robinson, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early 30s. Learn more about the disease in "The Word on Multiple Sclerosis" and "MS Study Reveals Differences in Immune System of Blacks and Whites." These articles are part of Heart & Soul's award-winning series on how MS affects African Americans, including singer Tamia, who was featured in the accompanying cover story. The National Association of Black Journalists recently honored Heart & Soul for the MS series as well as the design of a cover story on Erykayh Badu at its Salute to Excellence ceremony at the Unity conference in Chicago. The Word on Multiple SclerosisThe Tricky Autoimmune Disease of the Central Nervous System Still Baffles the Medical Community By Stacy Gilliam Anne Mari e Johnson's symptoms crept up during a smoke break back in the fall of 2002. She lit up as usual, but could barely hold the cigarette between her fingers. The following day, she experienced a pins-and-needles feeling in her hands, arms and throughout the bottom half of her 5'2" frame. "I couldn't lift my hands to button my shirt, to hold a cup or a pen," says Johnson, 36, a social services professional in Brooklyn, New York. "I was in such pain. A week later, I couldn't walk." On New Year's Eve, she received the diagnosis--multiple sclerosis (MS). "I was scared to death," says Johnson, who had just finished graduate school at the time. "How am I going to work? Who will date someone like me? Can I have kids? What exactly is multiple sclerosis?" Desperate for answers, she researched and learned, like more than 400,000 Americans diagnosed today, that MS is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. That means it can affect your brain, spinal chord and optic nerves. It isn't contagious or deadly, and what causes it is a mystery. But MS is a disabling, quite fickle disease that can produce loss of vision, numbness, loss of balance and muscle coordination, bowel and bladder dysfunction, and fatigue, among many other varying symptoms, which come and go, lighten up and worsen. At its most debilitating, MS can take away a person's ability to walk, write and talk. In less severe cases, one might feel tired and experience slight mobility issues. "In most people, it becomes a progressive disease with a downward, slow progression over the years," says John Richert, M.D., executive vice president, research & clinical programs at the National MS Society. "The symptoms may be mild or vague to the point that sometimes the person may ignore them. Or they'll go to a doctor who can't find anything. It may take years to diagnose it." Or a matter of weeks, as in Johnson's case. The quick loss of physical control can be dumbfounding and traumatic. Feelings of loneliness and depression aren't uncommon, as patients try to adjust to a new way of living. "I went from wearing three-inch high Manolos to someone who couldn't button her shirt," says Johnson, who mostly wears pullovers now. Cheryl Chatman understands. In 1990, she began losing vision in her left eye. "I started crying because I knew something was wrong with me," says the 42-year-old wife and mother of two who lives in Jacksonville, Florida. While one doctor assured Chatman her vision would return, Chatman insisted on a second opinion from a doctor who nailed the diagnosis as MS. Seventeen years later, she's legally blind. "My vision didn't come back. I only see shadows and silhouettes." At age 19, she lost feeling in the bottom of her feet and the palms of her hands. She didn't know it was MS then. The Face of MS Johnson and Chatman are textbook examples of MS patients diagnosed in their early 20s and 30s, in the prime of their lives. But their heritage lumps them in with the seemingly small, but really unknown number of African Americans with the disease. According to the National MS Society, blacks make up just 5 percent of the population. It is one of the few diseases that don't disproportionately affect the black culture, so the research suggests. But some aren't so convinced. "The mentality is that it affects Caucasians," says Kamilah Martin, founder of the Martin MS Alliance Foundation, a Washington, D.C., organization researching MS in communities of color. Martin, 30, felt her first symptom at 16, and was diagnosed a few years later in college. "It's affecting African Americans quietly," she says. Radio personality Kym Sellers, diagnosed in 1992, believes African Americans are20uncomfortable sharing that they even have MS. She admits to fibbing to some about why she would limp some days. "Either I pulled a muscle or my leg was bothering me" Sellers says. "I got tired of lying." Studies don't indicate a cut-and-dried reason why African Americans account for fewer cases of MS. But research shows those living closest to the equator are at less of a risk. MS is rare in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, and more prevalent among whites in northern Europe. "As the gene pool gets mixed in the United States, you find more African Americans with MS," Dr. Richert says. "It also has a tendency to be severe in African Americans. It's a very important issue to understand why that occurs." Answers will hopefully arise from two studies underway, one a Harvard University project, comparing the genes of African Americans to Caucasians, and a University of California study, which is looking at the genetic background of families with MS. For sure, there are more women--two to three times more--developing MS than men. The reasons for that are uncertain, too. But researchers are currently digging for conclusions, with some studies comparing genetics and common habits of men and women. Battling MS There is no cure for MS. But treatment has come a long way. With drugs and therapy, most people with MS can live full, productive lives. Current FDA-approved treatments, such as Avonex and Betaseron, manage symptoms such as pain and fatigue, treat relapses and slow down the disease's affect on the nervous system. All are injected by needle, however, oral treatments are in the pipeline. "We understand a lot more about the disease than we did 10 years ago," Dr. Richert says. "For the first time in history, we have drugs that can slow the damage." Researchers are excited about recent initiatives geared toward learning how to repair the nervous system and protect the brain and spinal chord, ideas Dr. Richert says sounded like science fiction five years ago. "Available drugs slow the damage," he says, "but don't have much capability to repair the nervous system." The current slate of drugs do work well, Johnson says. So well that the average person may not know Johnson has MS. The disease has also encouraged her to be proactive with her own health. In addition to a once-a-week injection, she combats her MS with yoga and Pilates, eating healthy and relaxing as often as possible. She ev en gave up smoking. "I believe healing and wellness is body, mind and spirit," she says. Exercise is good, particularly strength building, which the medical community once discouraged for MS patients for fear it would hasten feelings of fatigue. "If people can be encouraged to engage in a program of strength-building, it can counteract that secondary weakness that comes with a sedentary lifestyle," says Nicholas LaRocca, Ph.D., associate vice president of Healthcare Delivery and Policy Research. Cutting-edge technologies underway include body weight-supported treadmill training, which could retrain the body to walk again for some with MS; specialized seating devices for the wheelchair-bound and a way to enhance the computer experience for those with limitations. "We realize that with the young generation, at least, the computer is how people obtain information and connect with others," LaRocca says. Lifestyle changes are necessary for many to manage day to day. Chatman, who also works out, walks with a cane when necessary. She also depends on her teammate of a husband, Len, and minds her limitations. Johnson rarely wears button-up shirts, she uses cups with big handles and she's extr a careful with her curling iron. She still loves her heels, but goes for the aerosol pump variety now. "You make the best of it. You have to laugh about it," she says. "Your state of mind is crucial in dealing with this." Spreading Hope Equally important to finding a cure is embracing those with MS, educating those who don't have MS and letting the world know the disease isn't a death sentence. "I wanted to help people and let them know you can live with it," says Sellers, who in 2002, started the Kym Sellers Foundation, a non-profit organization that has raised $100,000 annually to support those with MS. Chatman shares that sentiment through the Art of Living With MS (www.alwms.org), a four-year old organization she founded with her husband. The couple organizes life-management programs for couples and families all over the country. "We provide avenues to get together and connect," says Chatman, who recently wrote a book, Six Secrets For Managing MS as a Team. "We talk about issues that we face each day. Sometimes the only people who understand are people who walk in our shoes." In similar spirit, Johnson juggles speaking engagements, mentors and has written an unpublished book about her first-year experiences with MS called Hey, Me Too. A Sister's Journey with Multiple Sclerosis. "There is somebody out there feeling alone in despair," she says. "But if they see people living with MS, that makes the difference." v Stacy Gilliam, a Washington, D.C., freelancer, is grateful for the lessons she learned about multiple sclerosis while writing this story.
The mystery to why blacks tend to face greater disability
with MS may be closer to being solved. According to a study published in the
July 3, 2007, issue of medical journal Neurology, an antibody used to diagnose
multiple sclerosis is present in greater levels in the spinal fluid of blacks with MS than whites with the disease.
Researchers compared the immune responses of 66 African-Americans and 132 whites with multiple sclerosis. The results showed that levels of antibodies
respons
ible for anti-myelin activity in the spinal fluid were 29 percent higher
in blacks than whites. The study also confirmed that African Americans with MS
often require walking aids far earlier than whites, but doesn't nail down why. On average, African Americans had MS
for nine years before needing ambulatory assistance such as a cane, compared to 17 years for whites,
reports the National MS Society.
"Certain aspects of the study reveal that MS-related immune abnormalities are more severe in African Americans," says John Richert, M.D., executive vice president, research & clinical programs, National MS Society. "But we must work harder to understand why the disease course can be more severe for African Americans."
John R. Rinker, M.D., of Washington University School of
Medicine in St. Louis and study co-author, says it's possible that unevenly distributed
genes between ethnic groups could account for different susceptibility to some diseases. "In multiple sclerosis,=0
Arecent genetic studies have begun to identify certain genes, which may explain
why African Americans experience more disability," Dr. Rinker says. However, exactly what these genes do is still a mystery.
--S.G.
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Ewunike Akpan, who runs 10-week C.O.R.E. Boot Camps for women and
men in Washington, D.C., has these tips for finding the best boot camp
for you:
• Look for a trainer certified by national organizations such as ACSM, AFAA, ACE, NASM and NSCA.
• Get clearance from your doctor, even if you're healthy.
• Try a free introductory session.
• Choose how much time and money you can commit. Boot camps vary but tend to run four to 12 weeks at $200
to $500 per package. Sessions per week range from one to five times a week.
• Choose camps led by trainers who motivate rather than berate and workouts that are challenging not abusive.
• Keep shopping if the workout isn't exhilarating and fun, or if the trainer doesn't seem focused on you and your success.
• Know your motivation. Don't limit yourself to the drill
sergeant types if you prefer a more supportive, one-on-one approach.
• Pick a camp that does a fitness assessment at the beginning and the end of the boot camp to chart your progress.
• Recruit a friend for added accountability and camaraderie.
By Iyanla Vanzant
Let's be honest. Most of us, particularly us women, can handle the
big things in life. We can get the children clothed and fed, the bills
paid and, on our good days, even wash a dish or two. We can get along
with some of the most difficult people and survive very draining
situations. We can even bounce back from those disappointing
relationships and bad breakups without pulling out all of our hair.
Even though we don't like it, we seem to have the big stuff covered.
What I have come to realize about myself and so many others is
that it's the little things in life we tend to overlook. To be
specific, I am addressing those little principles and values that
nourish our spirit, nurture our hearts and keep the crazies from our
doorsteps. Four in particular, I call HIPS: Honor, Integrity, Passion
and Stillness. Many of us have convinced ourselves that HIPS can be too
big to handle.
In this instance, honor means honoring yourself by speaking what's
on your heart, aka telling the truth about what you feel and know. It
means asking for what you need and letting others know what works and
what does not work for you. In the business of life, it is very easy to
forget that you are the only one who gets to say what goes on in your
life.
Integrity refers to keeping a vigilant watch on yourself to ensure
that what you think, feel, say and do are in alignment. It means
standing up within yourself, for yourself and not abandoning yourself
to make or keep other people happy.
Passion here does not refer to sensuality, sexuality or plain old
lust. It is about having that one thing in your life that you do just
for the joy of it. You don't have to be good at it. You may never get
paid for it. The only requirement is that it makes you feel good. It
puts a light in your eyes.
Then, there's stillness--the ability to sit down and do nothing,
without feeling guilty. It is a time to empty your heart, mind and
spirit. It means giving yourself permission to listen within, to refuel
and to love on you.
Too often, the temptation is to rush around making sure that the
big stuff gets handled and that everyone else is taken care of. In the
process, our HIPS can become disjointed. Perhaps it is time to consider
doing some HIPS-building exercises. - Promise yourself that you will not go to bed without a bubble bath at least three days a week. It honors your body.
- Don't spend more than you have, and refuse to wear shoes that
hurt your feet--no matter how good they look. You cannot be in integrity
when your feet hurt!
- Take a day just for you. Do something that makes you smile and
laugh, and then take a nap. When you wake up, if you listen deeply, I
promise, you will hear your heart sing.
- Finally, make a promise to life that this year you will pay close
attention to the people, situations and circumstances that do not sit
well on your HIPS.
Acclaimed author and motivational speaker Iyanla Vanzant is
founder and director of Inner Visions Institute of Spiritual
Development.
We may know more about sexually transmitted diseases these days, but that doesn't mean they've gone away. In fact, they are on the rise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). From 2002 to 2006, chlamydia rates increased by 17.2 percent among African Americans, and gonorrhea is 18 times more prevalent in blacks than in whites. Here are the most common STDs in women and how they are treated.
Chlamydia: The most frequently reported and fastest growing sexually transmitted disease, Chlamydia usually carries no symptoms. When they do occur, symptoms include abnormal vaginal discharge, burning when urinating and spotting between periods. Chlamydia is cured with antibiotics. If left untreated, it can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.
Gonorrhea: The second most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, Gonorrhea is often mistaken for a bladder infection. Symptoms include pain or burning upon urination, yellowish or bloody vaginal discharge, abdominal pain, heavier menstrual flow and spotting between periods. Gonorrhea is treated with antibiotics, but left untreated it can cause chronic pelvic pain, ectopic pregnancy and infertility.
Genital Herpes: The virus can lay dormant for years. When an outbreak does occur, look for painful blisters, itching, burning, fever, headaches and muscle aches. There is no cure for genital herpes, but current treatments can shorten outbreaks. Left untreated, genital herpes can be passed onto an infant. This STD is the leading cause of blindness in newborns.
Trichomoniasis: Caused by a parasite, symptoms include a pungent yellow, green or gray vaginal discharge and painful urination and intercourse. Trichomoniasis is usually treated with flagyl. Left untreated, this STD will increase your chances of getting HIV.
HIV/AIDS: Blacks account for almost half of all new HIV cases. CDC studies show that 66 percent of black women with AIDS contracted it through heterosexual contact. The virus can lay dormant for 10 years before exhibiting symptoms, including extreme tiredness; rapid weight loss; fevers and night sweats; long-lasting infections; diarrhea; swollen glands; coughing; oral and vaginal yeast infections; pelvic inflammatory disease (PID); discolored blotches. There is no cure, but treatments can slow the disease. If left untreated, it is fatal.
--Beverly James
Beverly Johnson was the definition of fierce gracing magazine
covers and stalking down catwalks at the top of the modeling game 30 years
ago. Who would have guessed that
during that time, Johnson, 55, subscribed to the "don't eat work out," she
says. "I love modeling. It gave me my start. It made me who I am and it's
lucrative. But the money that the models get, they deserve every penny and
more. The discipline it takes is unbelievable. I'm talking about literally
eating a bowl of brown rice and two eggs a week."
Now 140 pounds at 5'9", the original and still working supermodel
spent the height of her career weighing between 103 and 117 pounds, battling
anorexia and bulimia. "I was starving brain cells and organs, doing years of
damage. It took years to gain weight," says Johnson, the first African-American
cover model of American Vogue. "I've just, in the
last year or two, recognized when I was hungry, because I suppressed that for
so many years."
Johnson built her dream home on a golf course in the LaQuinta,
California, and is an avid participant in the sport. While she was learning to
play golf she recognized how important the core is for maintaining a strong=0
Aback and a sense of balance as you
mature. "Golf takes an awful lot of core strength for the swing so I began
working out with a trainer four times a week doing golf-specific exercises,
like working with a heavy ball and 10 pound weights," she says.
Johnson was really enjoying the golf training and playing daily
when she accepted the offer to be a judge on "She's Got the Look," a reality
show on TVLand that finds supermodels models older than 35. "Muscle is heavier
than fat and I got very bulky," says Johnson, who desired a more svelte-look
for the show. "I started doing a lot of cardiovascular. In the morning I would
walk to where I worked up a sweat--about 45 minutes, which is about 3-1/2 miles
for me. And then I'd do it again in the evening."
Johnson swears by portion control and eating five tiny meals a
day. Breakfast might be a protein shake, granola with milk, or scrambled eggs
and piece of toast. For lunch and dinner, she'll have a tuna fish sandwich and
an apple, or chicken, vegetables and rice.
Johnson says sugar has always been her big weakness, especially
butter and shortbread cookies. She controls her cravings by keeping temptations
out of her home and soothing her sweet tooth with dried fruit and licorice.
"You have to know what your body is doing," says Johnson, who
wants to engage a nutritionist and a chef. "I can eat cheese or dairy and still
loose weight. I can eat a teaspoon of peanut butter and it's okay. My
girlfriend can't."
Johnson is pleased that the world of modeling has changed. "There are young models that have a
much more healthy regime than we had, and they have a burden of responsibility
that I didn't have--this whole epidemic of young women growing up dangerously
obsessing about being really, really thin. The secret is out. It's no longer
true, the whole 'I'm a model, I'm naturally thin, I can eat anything I want.'
The jig is up, part
icularly when you are growing older."
--Joyce E. Davis
Anna Deavere Smith is taking her trailblazing blend of journalistic interviewing, engaged listening and artistic interpretation to explore the body as the vehicle for life and the human will as its fuelin her new one-woman show, "Let Me Down Easy." Smith's riveting characters are based on scores of interviews.
"The constant question I'm pursuing is: Is there anything in our human experience beyond the human body?" she says. "We chronicle life from when the body emerges to when the body is gone. But the spirit must be a part of who we are and what we are. Love is obviously a part of who we are. But our feeling and will are what keep us going. They're the fuel that keeps us in motion."
Smith conceived the project while interviewing patients at Yale University School of Medicine as a visiting professor. "When I talked to people about their bodies, they'd go on and on," she recalls. "Usually, we're so full of our thoughts and aspiration and our fears--we're always trying to move forward--that we don't think about our bodies. But if you have a toothache, and I don't cut you off, you'll talk at length about it. I thought it'd be very interesting to talk to people who are extremely aware of what's going on in their body because they are suffering or because they are using it to make a living."
Smith listened to patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and wounded U.S. soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. "I talked to a swimmer about what it meant to lose a race by two-one-hundredths of a second," she says. "I talked to boxers about what it means to be a champion. I talked to a mother leaving a hospital with her cancer-free child after two years. The body is a vehicle. What happens when the vehicle stops working?"
Smith is known for theatrical works on life in the United States, especially on controversial racial issues. In her award-winning "Fires in the Mirror," she used the words of black and Jewish residents to portray the racial tension of the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, in 1991. Likewise, her 1992 play, "Twilight," catalogued sentiments in Los Angeles, after police were acquitted in the beating of motorist Rodney King.
In "Let Me Down Easy," however, Smith goes beyond the nation's borders to examine the human will. She included the stories of South African children impacted by AIDS. She also visited Rwanda, the site of brutal tribal genocide in 1994.
"I talked to both tribes--the Tutsis, who were the victims, and the Hutus, who were the perpetrators of the genocide," she says. "Hutu prisoners who've been in jail for the last 10 years for their role in the genocide are about to be released. There's a national campaign for forgiveness. I listened to Tutsis, some of whom had lost family members, some who had been tortured themselves, talk to me about how important it is to for give the Hutus because if they didn't, there was no way for the country to move forward." Smith says the Rwandan experience illustrates how forgiveness is part of the human will to survive.
"Forgiveness comes under the category of being human," she says. "It's a nonphysical way we negotiate our way through life. It's part of our resiliency. Can you image what we'd be like if we didn't forgive? We forgive because we know there's something else about life--grace. Forgiveness is about grace."
--Yvette Moore
We've all felt the pinch: While away from home, you had
to--gasp!--get money from an ATM at a bank not your own. You accept the
$2.50 fee that bank charges you to use its machine. But you didn't
think about the $2 fee you rown bank will slap on you for making a
transaction at a foreign bank. And ATMs at hotels, restaurants, cruise
ships and casinos sometimes charge as much as $7 per transaction. Ouch.
Whenever possible, use your own bank's ATM. But if you're in the middle
of nowhere and the only ATM available is at Joe's Bank, try this: At
the grocery store, drugstore or other point of sale places, when you
pay with your debit card, always choose the cash back option. There's
no fee for that money.
By Joy Sewing
Lalah Hathway feels like a woman-child.
The talented musician and lyricist loves video games, is maniacal about her bed sheets and brushes her teeth in the dark.
Having spent her nearly 20-year career captivating fans with her
rich brand of soul, Hathaway is now stepping into a new, grown-up role.
She joins actress Gabrielle Union and acclaimed artist Synthia
Saint James as a national ambassador for Susan G. Komen's Circle of
Promise, a campaign to help prevent breast cancer in African-American
women and provide a support network within the community.
Hathaway brings as much intensity--and maturity--to her community
service as she does to her music. She'll perform at the Divas Against
Disparities Benefit Concert at Heart & Soul's Sisters Partnering
All-Together (SPA) Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, October 16 to
19, and will continue talking with women across the country about the
importance of early detection and treatment as she tours to promote her
latest CD, "Self Portrait."
"It's amazing how we are diagnosed last and die first," Hathaway,
39, says. "I'm happy to be able to have this platform to talk with
women and just open the dialogue. I'm able to stand in front of
thousands o
f people and share information. That's powerful."
Though she has no personal experience with the disease, her
manager, Patricia Shields, is a three-year breast cancer survivor and
many of her friends have had issues with their breasts. "Breast cancer
isn't anything we ever talked about in my household growing up," she
says. "I know many women who live with that false sense of security.
They didn't have it and their mothers didn't have it, so they believe
it will skip them. But that's not necessarily true."
The Circle of Promise campaign has encouraged Hathaway to re-think
her own health. She recently had her first mammogram at Meharry Medical
Center in Nashville and has become more diligent about doing routine
self-breast examinations. (Hathaway's right on schedule. Women should
have annual mammograms starting at age 40. If there's a family history
of breast cancer, those mammograms should start at age 30.) She also is
making more of an effort to exercise. Her favorites are Nintendo's
WiiFit, a video game that combines fitness and entertainment, and
spinning.
Born in Chicago, Hathaway is the oldest daughter of the late soul
legend Donny Hathaway and her classically trained vocalist mother,
Eulaulah Hathaway. Her father committed suicide when she was just 10.
Hathaway went on to study music at Berklee School of Music in Bo
ston and debuted her first record in 1990 at age 21 while still in
college. She toured with jazz pianist Joe Sample and went on to perform
with Marcus Miller, Meshell Ndegéocello and Mary J. Blige. Her sister,
Kenya Hathaway, has toured with George Benson as a singer, guitarist
and percussionist and, most recently, worked on "American Idol."
"Self Portrait" is her fifth studio album and includes a
collaboration with white-hot singer-songwriter Rahsaan Patterson. She
says her father's presence provided inspiration for the introspective
disc, but especially for the single "Little Girl." "This feels
different and fresh," Hathaway says of her latest effort. "The kind of
response I'm getting feels equal to what I've put into it. That's a
good feeling. Hopefully, I'll be able to play off this record for a
very long time. The most important thing to me is to be able to get out
live and play the music."
She'll continue touring the United States this year and hopes
eventually to release a live album, explaining live music is a "dying
art. Soul music is really meant to be experienced with all the drums
and singing you can't hear on the radio," she says. "I grew up
listening to the radio a lot and recognized all of that music shaped me
as a person. Soul music tells the story of our people in this country,
and it
s really important they hear the story, so it can be passed down."
Hathaway says the Internet has made it easier to reach a larger
number of fans more quickly, but there are still challenges with
traditional radio. "If you turn on the radio right now, you hear the
same 10 songs. And if you want black soul music, you are relegated to a
hip-hop station or an oldies station. You either fit in one box or the
other. There is a whole gang of artists who feel disenfranchised by
radio."
For now, Hathaway continues to share her music with fans and spread the word about the Circle of Promise.
And, occasionally, the little girl in Hathaway returns.
"It's just weird to me when people refer to me as a woman because
there's still that side of me that is online at midnight waiting for
the new GameStop Mario [video game] to come out," she says. "I think
I'll always be that way."
Joy Sewing is the fashion and beauty writer at the Houston Chronicle.
Knowledge helped her find her way back.
You could say I was a workout junkie, addicted to the adrenaline surge I got during a hard workout. My jones led me to hike t he steep and rocky Great Wall of China, mountain bike the switchbacks along Texas' Fossil Ridge, make the slippery pre-dawn hike to the top of Blue Mountain and soar 25 feet high on a trapeze. That said, you might guess that it would take some kind of calamity to make me afraid to jog a slow mile or hop on my bike and take a spin around my hilly neighborhood.
It happened in May 2003,after the first leg of a 26.2-mile fundraiser walk for breast cancer. At first, I felt fine, but at 3:30 a.m. I awoke with my jaws clenched and a heavy cramp in my chest. I felt nauseated and scared. I knew what was happening, but it would take more than a year for me to fully understand and accept that I was having a heart attack at 36. In a tent. In the middle of a fundraiser walk.
A week after the walk, stress test and electrocardiogram results said I was fine, despite the hot daggers I felt in my chest when I ran on the hospital's treadmill. So that day I was admitted and had a balloon angioplasty and three stents put in to prop open my narrowed left coronary artery.
I was dumbfounded. I thought that all of this time I was trading exercise and a fairly healthy lifestyle for immunity from health problems like cancer and heart disease. I've been a fitness instructor for 10 years and a fitness editor for seven, so I preached the gospel of the preventive powers of exercise. Some part of me felt duped and robbed.
I wasn't anything close to a perfect health disciple. I was carrying about 20 extra pounds, but I had no other red-flag risk factors. My good cholesterol was nearly three times as high as doctors recommend, but my blood work revealed high levels of a type of bad cholesterol that is genetic and probably will never budge, despite exercise or drugs. That, plus the year-long stress of moving to a new city for a new job, was probably what tipped the health balance that had been teetering for some time.
The recovery from surgery was quick, and in a few weeks I started cardiac rehabilitation to help me ease back into the habit. Cardiac rehabilitation helped me find my low gear, but I still wanted to sweat hard like I had before. In rehab, I had a hard time staying positive, wired to a monitor like the Six Million Dollar Man, barely breaking a sweat as I walked slowly on a treadmill alongside folks who had much more severe heart problems. Square one was time zones away from where I wanted to be. But in three months I finished rehab and gradually started moderate workouts.
Then, it happened again. Six months after the first heart attack, the evening after a 30-minute easy run, I drove myself to the hospital with chest pains. The blockage was the right coronary artery, which had shown no signs of blockage six months earlier.
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
I wasn't getting better. My job was still stressful and I was still internalizing it. And although I was a fitness editor of a national magazine, pressing deadlines and fear another easy jog would land me in the hospital again made my workouts fewer and farther between.
Part of the frustration was a lack of information. Heart disease is still considered a man thing, although more women have died of heart disease than men each year since 1984. Most women who have heart attacks have them after menopause, but estrogen isn't as protective as they thought. I'm your proof.
Turning point No.1 was finding WomenHeart, the National Coalition for Women With Heart Disease. There was no local group chapter in the city where I live, so I went to national meetings, including the Women's Health Symposium at the Mayo Clinic in 2004. And each time, sharing stories with other women helped me adjust to my "new normal."
The fitness turning point came much later. Each of my heart attacks happened fewer than 10 hours after strenuous physical activity. I wanted and needed to exercise. But a lot of fitness information for heart patients assumes we're all sedentary bon-bon eaters who need to rebuke our slothful ways. I wanted guidance on how to feel like I used to feel during a good workout--exhilarated, challenged and confident.
Truth is, being in good shape and heeding early symptoms helped me avoid grave and irreparable damage to my heart. Understanding that convinced me to stop blaming myself.
Two years after my first heart attack, I bought a heart rate monitor--a belt-like strap that I wear under my clothes at my bra line--and a spiffy red watch that shows the readout. Whether I needed it more as a lucky charm or a gadget to track my heart beats, it gave me the reassurance I needed. When I work too hard, it beeps to remind me to slow down. I programmed it with my weekly fitness goals. When I reach them, a little trophy appears on the watch and stays there all week.
Chasing my weekly trophy has kept me motivated and on track. So far I've lost 10 pounds. I've returned to teaching fitness classes and sometimes ride my bike to the gym. And I've learned that a low-intensity walk with my dogs is just as vital to staying fit and reducing stress as my harder walks are. Overcoming both the addiction to and the subsequent fear of exercise took some time. But now I have enough confidence to sweat to my heart's content.
--Nichele Hoskins
Blew
your last meal with a bag of salty popcorn or chips? You can undo some of the
damage with your next bite by snacking on potassium-rich bananas, sweet
potatoes or edamame. These healthful snacks have a chemical in them that
latches on to sodium to flush out the excess and relieve bloating.
If you find yourself newly diagnosed with heart disease in the Kansas City area, Marie Burden might pay you a visit. Burden, 53, has been there. At 36, she was told she had heart disease. At 48, she had a heart transplant. So when she makes hospital rounds to meet women with heart disease, she speaks from experience.
She recently met a 35- year-old woman who doesn't think she needs a transplant. Burden, who lives just outside Kansas City, Kansas, in Leavenworth, recognizes the denial. "When they told me I needed a heart transplant, I didn't believe them. They asked me why and I said, 'Have you ever heard of Tuskegee?' "
At 36, Burden was a "perfect size 8." On a trip with her husband she couldn't get into a pair of jeans she'd worn a few days earlier. After climbing a flight of stairs, she started coughing and couldn't stop. Later, she found out the swelling was caused by edema, the pooling of fluid in the body caused by the heart's inability to keep blood moving.
She also learned she had a congenital heart murmur and cardiomyopathy. At 44, she had her first cardiac arrest and had to be shocked three times to be revived. Doctors implanted a defibrillator that day. Three years later after the implant she had three heart attacks in one day. The defibrillator saved her life. "It dawned on me that something was really wrong because I kept dying," she says.
She waited 10 months for a donor heart and spent five of them reconciling with her need for a transplant and the changes heart disease had made in her life. After the transplant, she tried to find the donor's family to thank them, but the family couldn't be found. "I want them to know the organ wasn't wasted and how much living I'm doing."
Before her heart failed Burden had never given a thought to organ donation. Now she's a staunch advocate. In addition to her hospital visits through the Pathways to Purpose program at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, she is a national spokeswoman for Women-
Heart, the only national advocacy group specifically for women with heart disease. Her desire to give back to her community and her gratitude to her donor drive her to look heart patients in the eye, tell her story and help them adjust to their illness.
"It's like I got some money from a bank and now I want to pay it back," she says. "What better way than to give back to my people?" -
--Nichele Hoskins
Fat-free -- less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving
Low-fat -- 3 grams or less per serving (if serving is less than 30 grams or 2 tablespoons, no more than 3 grams of fat per 50 grams of food)
Light -- one-third fewer calories or half the fat of the regular version
Low-sodium -- 140 milligrams or less per serving (if serving size is less than 30 grams or 2 tablespoons, no more than 140 milligrams of sodium per 50 grams of food
Lightly-salted -- at least 50 percent less sodium per serving than the regular version
Reduced --when describing fat, sodium or calorie content, the food must have at least 25 percent less of these nutrients than the regular version
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