Smoking and breast cancer risk

By St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times

As if lung cancer weren't scary enough, a new report by a Clearwater, Fla., researcher found that women who smoke also are more likely to die of breast cancer.

The report, published in a recent issue of Chemical Health & Safety, found that women who smoked were 20 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than nonsmokers. In a study of 12,500 women in Erie Co., Pa., Dr. G.H. Miller and his co-authors found that 5.7 percent of smokers died of breast cancer, compared with 4.66 percent of nonsmokers.

"The data from the present study appear to show that if smoking would be eliminated among women, then death from breast cancer could be reduced by more than 20 percent," the report said.

Chemical Health & Safety is a publication of the American Chemical Society. Miller, who divides his time between Clearwater and Edinboro, Pa., is president of Studies on Smoking, a nonprofit group that researches the health effects of smoking.

Did you know this about baldness?

The nonprofit American Hair Loss Council says genetics account for 95 percent of all cases of hair loss. But while men may look to their fathers and women to mothers for whether their crown will be glorious, genetics is an unpredictable mix.

The physiological culprit in balding is something called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, derived from the male hormone androgen. Androgen circulates in the blood and is converted to DHT by the enzyme 5-alpha reductase. People with more of the enzyme will get more DHT, which binds to hair follicles, resulting in thinner strands until growth stops entirely.

Walk it off

Almost 70 percent of black women are overweight, and that number is steadily rising. The epidemic has prompted the National Institutes of Health to launch a new campaign aimed at encouraging black women to improve eating and exercise habits.

Sisters Together: Move More, Eat Better is part of the Weight-control Information Network of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. It includes a public awareness campaign and free publications that offer recipes, tips on healthy eating and easy ways to boost physical activity.

Partners include the Association for Black Cardiologists, the National Black Nurses' Association and the American Diabetes Association.

"We are not suggesting that African-American women make dramatic changes overnight," said Dr. Griffin Rodgers, deputy director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. "What's important is to take incremental steps toward becoming healthier."

Among American women of all races, 60 percent don't get the recommended amount of exercise - 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week - and 25 percent don't get any exercise at all.

Overall, about 60 percent of Americans are overweight. That puts them at greater risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers.

Sisters Together offers a free program guide that will show you how to start a health awareness group, as well as four booklets: Energize Yourself and Your Family; Fit and Fabulous as You Mature; Celebrate the Beauty of Youth; and Walking . . . A Step in the Right Direction.

For free copies, call NIH at (877) 946-4627 or order online at www.niddk.nih.gov/health/nutrit/ nutrit.htm.