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Posts published in “Health & Fitness”

Carolina Panthers RB DeAngelo Williams Dyes Hair Pink for Late Mom and Breast Cancer Awareness

By goodblacknews on September 9, 2014

DeAngelo Williams
DeAngelo Williams (Sam Sharpe/USA TODAY Sports)

Before Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams dyed his trademark dreadlocks pink and painted his toenails pink in honor of his late mother, Sandra Hill, who lost her battle with breast cancer in May.

Williams has been at the forefront of the NFL’s breast cancer awareness campaign and is credited with persuading the league to allow players to wear pink in October for breast cancer awareness month.

Williams hasn’t done interviews since his mother’s death, other than a first-person article in May for Peter King’s “Monday Morning Quarterback” website.
IScreen Shot 2014-09-09 at 7.01.45 PMn the piece, Williams discussed with great passion what his mother meant to him and how his four aunts also died of cancer. He talked about his mother’s smile, how she always was there for others fighting the cancer.
“Breast cancer, whether I like it or not, is part of my family’s story,” wrote Williams. “That’s why I am so passionate about raising awareness, because I have seen firsthand how it can impact others.”
Williams helped Carolina overcome the absence of injured quarterback Cam Newton on Sunday, rushing for a team-high 72 yards in the Panthers’ 20-14 victory.
article by Adam Scheffer via espn.go.com
ESPN.com Panthers reporter David Newton contributed to this report.

Don Cornelius Foundation Kicks Off Suicide Prevention Week With Sept. 7 Event in Los Angeles

By goodblacknews on September 1, 2014

Chicago's 40th Anniversary Soul Train Concert To Honor Don Cornelius
The Don Cornelius Foundation (DCF) is kicking off Suicide Prevention Week themed “I AM THE FACE,” with an afternoon of music and fellowship on Sunday, September 7, 2014 at 3:00 pm at the popular Post & Beam restaurant in Los Angeles, CA.
The DCF is a non-profit organization formed by the family of Donald “Don” C. Cornelius, creator of “Soul Train,” who ended his life by suicide on February 1, 2012. Radio personality Pat Prescott from 94.7 The Wave will host.
Renaissance man Don Cornelius’ entrepreneurial spirit and vast contribution to television, music, the arts and popular culture is unparalleled. The foundation – whose slogan is ‘Life is beautiful, precious and worth living’ – was established to provide awareness, prevention and support for those contemplating suicide and survivors who have lost loved ones to suicide.
Committed to identifying and supporting programs assisting those in transition and in need of healing, DCF has chosen three organizations for initial grants in 2014, namely New Directions for Veterans, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Urban LA, and The Los Angeles LGBT Center. These organizations are committed to serving underserved, at-risk communities and to increasing their capacities within the African-American community.
Helmed by Restaurateur Brad Johnson and Chef Govind Armstrong, Post & Beam offers California cuisine with a touch of soul to the surrounding Baldwin Hills neighborhood and beyond. “We’re pleased to be associated with Post & Beam” says Don’s son Tony Cornelius who heads up DCF.
Post & Beam is located at 3767 Santa Rosalia Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90008. Tickets can be purchased online at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/i-am-the-face-tickets-12682942021
Information is also available on the website http://thedoncorneliusfoundation.org
Read more at http://www.eurweb.com/2014/08/don-cornelius-foundation-kicks-off-suicide-prevention-week-sept-7/#xSyxe0EbjImfkrOD.99

71 Year-Old Bodybuilder Sam "Sonny" Bryant Jr. Inspires at Health and Fitness Expo

By goodblacknews on August 31, 2014

Screen Shot 2014-08-31 at 2.58.14 PM
Sam “Sonny” Bryant Jr. is a rarity.  He is a champion bodybuilder, and at the ripe old age of 71, he is still going strong.
“I just keep competing,” Bryant said at the I’m The Biggest Winner Family Health & Fitness Expo in Austell, Georgia. “I love it. It’s a lifestyle.”
With a body that puts most men half his age to shame, Bryant’s rippling physique is testimony to years-long hard work and dedicated commitment.
He works out twice a day alongside a full time, overnight job.  “I’ve got a room full of trophies,” said Bryant, who was invited to the Expo as part of a roster of quality experts and motivational speakers. “I can’t even count them all.”
RELATED: 

He first hit the gym to relive the stress of a failing marriage. Within months, Bryant was hooked. Now, he can deadlift 425lbs.  “I’ve been doing this for 27 years,” he said. “I used to do three or four contests a year, and I’d always have at least two trophies when I come home, so I’ve got over 70 or 80 trophies.”
sam-sonny-bryant-bodybuilder-_s87dBryant wants to prove that living a full and active life is possible at any age. All you need is the right approach, he says.  “I don’t think about my age,” said the Georgia native. “You’re going to age, that’s inevitable, but you don’t have to get old. I know people younger than me, but they’re older then me.”
“I can’t see giving up; this is my life. People ask me when I’m going to retire. I’m still working a 40 hours a week job. I say, why should I quit? I’ve figured this stuff out. More people die retired than die working.”
He believes it is never too late to improve your health. Bryant, who said he has never ever taken steroids or performance-enhancing drugs, advises fitness newbies to start off slow and keep doing the work.
“There is no age limit on exercising,” he said. “People got life but they’ve not living. Life is getting out and enjoying yourself. You’ve got to be physical. You’ve got to keep your heart strong.”
“You are not going to jump right in and start out wide open. That’s what happens to most people, they jump right in and think they’re going to look for instant results.”
“Once you start pushing your body, then your body is going to get used to it,” he said. “You just keep doing it, keep doing it, take your time and don’t look for that fast-paced stuff, and I’ll come to you.”
article by Kunbi Tinuoye via thegrio.com

Tameka Lawson Brings Yoga to Youth in Chicago Neighborhood

By goodblacknews on August 27, 2014

Tameka Lawson
Tameka Lawson is changing her Chicago neighborhood one yoga pose as at a time.  Lawson, a yoga enthusiast for only a year, is the executive director of I Grow Chicago, a non-profit organization in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood.
Lawson said she started practicing yoga because she needed to learn how to slow down and relax, and she thought the idea of bringing it to her community would bring people closer together.
Tameka Lawson
From The Huffington Post:

Not long after she took up yoga, the student became a teacher as she began to lead classes for youth in Englewood through her organization.
Initially, the classes took place inside the five area schools her group works with as a means of helping the young students cope with the stresses of their environment. While Lawson does go through basic yoga poses and breathing exercises with her young students, the lessons she hopes they will take away from her work extend far beyond the practice of yoga itself.
Built into each class, she says, are elements of art therapy, motivational speaking, mentoring and job skills. Yoga is simply the gateway to that information.
“There are lots of elements causing these youth to have stress,” Lawson said. “We want to get at the center of these youth and give them a moment to breathe in a way that will change the way they react and process things.”
The classes have been such a hit that Lawson and her group have taken their show on the road — or, more specifically, to the street. They’ve held regular, free community yoga classes on a blocked-off stretch of 64th Street, and are also offering free lessons the first Monday of every month at Kusanya Cafe.

“If we can prevent one 8-year-old from growing up to become a person who could potentially pick up a gun, we’ve succeeded,” she said. “If we can intervene for a 14-year-old who has made bad choices from making another bad choice, we’ve succeeded. If a 28-year-old who says he wants to stop selling drugs and just needs the opportunity, we’ve succeeded. We don’t have the answers, but we’re trying to come up with creative solutions.”
article via clutchmagonline.com

Center for Disease Control Reports Black Teen Birth Rate at an All-Time Low

By goodblacknews on August 22, 2014


New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dismantles some long held myths about teen sexuality. The birthrate for teens in the United States hit an all-time low in 2013.
The government agency reports 277,749 babies were born in 2013 to mothers who were under the age of 20. That is the lowest number recorded since the CDC began collecting birthrate data in 1940.  Between 1991 and 2012, the rate for Non-hispanic Black teens saw the largest decline of 63%, and birthrates were down in all 50 states.
According to the CDC, this is the result of “a number of behavioral changes, including decreased sexual activity, increases in the use of contraception at first sex and at most recent sex, and the adoption and increased use of hormonal contraception, injectables, and intrauterine devices.”
 

Among Black teenagers, birth rates fell less than 20% from 2007 to 2012 in the District of Columbia and Michigan, while rates in 13 states fell at least 35%.
In 2012, non-Hispanic black and Hispanic teen birth rates were still more than two times higher than the rate for non-Hispanic white teens, but despite widely held beliefs about black women’s reproduction, Black teens do not, in fact, have the highest birth rate in the country. So the next time anyone tries to point the finger at Black women celebrities for encouraging teen sex, like Bill O’Reilly did in April, their handwringing can be easily refuted with CDC data.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock, CDC
Source: CDC
article via forharriet.com

Intel, 50 Cent Pair Up on Headphones That Can Measure Your Heart Rate

By goodblacknews on August 17, 2014
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson attends an autograph signing event at SMS Audio.
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson attends an autograph signing event at SMS Audio. (Marcel Thomas | FilmMagic | Getty Images)
Chipmaker Intel and SMS Audio, the consumer electronics company founded by 50 Cent, are partnering to launch a pair of heart-rate-measuring headphones.
The SMS Audio BioSport In-Ear headphones have an optical light sensor in the earbuds that, combined with other sensors, infer the wearer’s heart rate during both intense exercise sessions and regular, continuous wear.
Unlike LG’s heart-rate monitoring earphones, the Intel-SMS earphones pull power from your smartphone’s audio jack, which means there’s no additional charging required. And rather than requiring the user to go through a proprietary app, these earphones integrate directly with popular app RunKeeper. The companies say there are likely more app integrations coming.
The BioSport In-Ear headphones will launch sometime in the last quarter of the year. Pricing has not been announced.
For SMS Audio, the partnership with tech giant Intel and the new product are part of an effort to gain traction in a crowded headphone market. NPD analyst Ben Arnold has said that, while the premium headphone market has grown 16 percent over the past year, SMS Audio’s dollar share has shrunk to less than one percent. The company’s headphones, which range in price from $70 to more than $200, have gotten mixed reviews.
For Intel, it’s another step in the wearables market. At the International CES earlier this year, Intel revealed a variety of small-device prototypes, seemingly intent not to miss the early wearable wave the way it did with mobile.  In May, Intel showed off a “smart” shirt, embedded with sensors and conductive fibers, that it expects could ship sometime next year.
And just yesterday, the company announced it had teamed up with the Michael J. Fox Foundation to launch wearable devices that would monitor and gather data around Parkinson’s disease. That data will be shared with researchers, who will study the effects of Parkinson’s medications on motor skills.
—By Lauren Goode, Re/code.net.

The Tempo, an Activity Tracker for Seniors, Lets You Know When Something's Wrong

By goodblacknews on August 14, 2014

CarePredict is building a smartwatch that’s designed to monitor the elderly while maintaining their independence. The Tempo is a wrist-worn sensor that keeps an eye on someone’s activity patterns, and should it spot an anomaly, raise the alarm. It works by mapping out a general schedule of the day, and observing changes like an unusual mid-day nap or if someone has remained still in one room for too long. It’ll even observe trends over a much longer period of time, so if someone’s walking pace slows over a couple of weeks, you’ll be able to see it and address any underlying issues.
The hardware comes in four parts: along with the watch, you’ll need a wireless charging plate, room beacons to help the Tempo orient itself and a wall-mounted communications hub. It’s from the latter of that group that the data will be pushed to the cloud, enabling families and others to keep an eye on their parents while at work or on holiday. Unfortunately, the product isn’t yet ready for prime time, so like so many things nowadays, has taken to crowdfunding to raise enough cash to finish the job. This time out, you’ll have to throw upwards of $170 towards Fundable if you want one of the first units, with four room beacons and three months of free monitoring.

Liz Ferro's "Girls With Sole" Non-Profit Helps Young Women Overcome Life's Challenges Through Fitness

By goodblacknews on July 16, 2014

TODAY
Six days a week, Liz Ferro packs up her car and drives throughout Cleveland to teach young women yoga, swimming and other fitness-based activities. But it isn’t all about breaking a sweat.  “It washes away all the cobwebs,” Ferro told TODAY. “Not just out of my brain, but off my heart.”
After using fitness to recover from her own difficult childhood, Ferro now runs Girls With Sole, a non-profit organization committed to helping young women learn to overcome life’s challenges through exercise. “It’s so much easier for them to feel down on themselves,” she told TODAY.
TODAYFerro hits the road throughout the week to work out with pre-teen and teenage girls in schools, juvenile detention centers, social services and other organizations throughout the Cleveland area. “My car looks like a sporting goods store exploded in it,” she said. “It’s almost like Meals on Wheels, but we’re fitness and wellness on wheels.”
Girls With Sole, which she founded in 2009, is largely inspired by Ferro’s own past. She lived in four different foster homes as a child. By the time she was adopted, she had been sexually abused and experienced other traumas while bouncing from home to home.
“Sports and fitness was the thing that made me find the empowerment to be able to handle it and resilience to move on and keep moving forward,” she explained. “Even in the darkest times, it literally saved my life.”
Ferro is now turning to the next generation of young women to show them how to use healthy coping mechanisms, including running, swimming, biking and yoga, in the face of hard situations, whatever they may be.
“School has stressed me out so much, and I could always look forward to Wednesdays, when I would see Liz and I would see her smile and her energy,” eighth-grader Gina said. “People feed off that.”
When Girls With Sole participant Jada finished her first 5K, it meant more than crossing a finish line.  “It makes me feel like I can achieve something in my life,” she said. “Coming here brings the happiness out of me instead of sadness.”
Click here to see video of this story.
article by Amy Eley via www.today.com

Coming Home: Tracy Morgan Released From Rehab

By goodblacknews on July 14, 2014

Rio 2 Premiere - Arrivals
Tracy Morgan is going to continue on his road to recovery at home now that he’s been released from rehab.
A month after suffering critical injuries from a six-car pile-up that killed his friend James McNair, MTV News reports that the “30 Rock” star left the facility where he’d been healing on Saturday morning.
Tracy, who was wheelchair-bound yesterday, went home just as news of his lawsuit of againt Wal-Mart got out. “In regards to the reports of a lawsuit, I can confirm that Tracy, along with the other victims of this horrific accident, have filed suit,” the comedian’s rep said in a statement.
Now that Tracy’s well enough to head home, his caretakers don’t plan to slack off in their duties to get him back to his old self. “Tracy has been released from the rehabilitation center and will continue his recovery efforts at home with an aggressive outpatient program,” the statement read.
Nearly every detail of Tracy’s accident, and the resulting fallout, have been followed closely by media outlets. Now, he’s hoping to get a little peace and quiet.
“He asked me to pass along his sincerest gratitude to everyone who has helped him get to this point,” Tracy’s rep said. “He would also appreciate some privacy during this crucial point in his recovery.”
article by Sonya Eskridge via hellobeautiful.com

Martin Luther King Hospital in Los Angeles Set to Reopen in Early 2015

By goodblacknews on July 1, 2014

mlk set to reopenThe embattled Los Angeles’ Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital is set to reopen in early 2015 according to hospital officials, giving residents in its surrounding community access to much needed care as well as job opportunities. The hospital originally opened in 1972 serving the African American and Latino community with various types of medical services until the year 2007. The “heaven sent” hospital as it is known to many members of the community was shut down due to high patient deaths, unqualified staff, hygiene issues, and medical scandals. The shut down resulted in the loss of hospital jobs and lack of nearby emergency rooms for the community.
According to the MLK Community hospital website, “The hospital is expected to serve 1.2 million residents from all over South Los Angeles including Compton, Inglewood, Watts-Willowbrook and Lynwood.”
Not only will the hospital create jobs for people in the community, but it will also provide more than 10 inpatient and outpatient services including but not limited to Anesthesiology, Cardiology-medical and diagnostic, Emergency medicine, Endocrinology and Gastroenterology. The new hospital will also have 131 beds, a 21-bed emergency department, a critical care unit, and labor and delivery services.
“We’re not done yet, we have a lot to do and we are going to do it,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “We are putting in the kind of services that meet the needs and the demands of that population.”
The hospital will take new measures to ensure and decrease hospital scandals, hygiene issues, and unqualified staff by hiring the highest quality staff and using modern day technology. The hospitals mission is to “provide compassionate, collaborate, quality care and improve the health of our community. Our vision is to be a leading model of innovation, collaboration and community health care.”
For more information visit: http://www.mlkcommunityhospital.org
article by Kimberlee Buck via lasentinel.net