Health Roundup (Lung Cancer, Bulimia, and Obesity)
December 9, 2009 by blackgirlgrown
Filed under health and wellness
The Good
Lung Cancer’s Racial Gap Narrowing: Efforts to prevent teens from smoking have helped narrow the racial disparity in lung cancer incidence and death rates among adults in the United States, researchers say. Smoking causes most lung cancer cases in the United States. Lung cancer cases have been consistently higher in blacks than in whites at all ages. Since the 1970s, programs to reduce smoking by teens have proven highly effective.
The Bad
Black Girls and Bulimia: In a recent study called “Caught in the Bulimic Trap?,” researchers found that African American girls are 50% more likely than girls who are white to be bulimic and that girls from low-income families are more likely to be bulimic than girls from high-income families.
The Not Quite Sure
College Drops Required Fitness Class for Obese Students: Obese students at a historically black college near Philadelphia won’t have to take a fitness class to graduate after all. Lincoln University faculty nixed the idea this week amid complaints the so-called “fat course” undermined a school principle of equal treatment. The school had initiated the policy to address high rates of obesity and diabetes, especially in the African-American community.
