(BlackDoctor.org) -- While African American women tend to have higher bone mineral density (BMD) than white women throughout life, they are still at significant risk of developing osteoporosis. The misperception that osteoporosis is only a concern for white women can delay prevention and treatment in African American women who do not believe they are at risk for the disease
Recently the American Heart Association released a study on the heart-friendly cities for women in the United States. The study, which is part of the Go Red For Womeninitiative, may surprise a few people. The study considered a variety of risk factors including obesity, smoking rates and general health statistics.
Over the last few months, black America has seen some of its most privately held conspiracies being blown up by the media. The controversy has ranged from Senator Obama's pastor, Rev. Wright's incendiary sermon to Alicia Keys' rant about the government and 'gangsta' rap.
So with the dubious Friday the 13th approaching, the question has to be asked, why is the black community so rife with its own set of myths, conspiracy theories and well, let's just call 'em "Urban" urban legends?
Sure some of it is driven by word of mouth, some by the media and others given life by internet chain letters, but nevertheless, this infamous list has more traction than you may believe... In honor of all the paranoia associated with the 13th, we just had to pull together the biggest collection of far-fetched or otherwise conspiracies in the African-American community and called it a day at 13 (not a coincidence). And don't lie! We know you were in on more than a few of these ... "Well I heard ..."
For most young boys, if given a choice between playing football and washing dishes, the answer's simple... ditch the dishes. And for super chef, G. Garvin, the choice was simple indeed. But instead of getting on a the field, at the young age of just of 13, he shelved his football aspirations and took a job at Atlanta's Vining's Inn, where he washed dishes and soaked up the inner workings of a four-star operation.
At the age of 15, Garvin found his way to the Ritz-Carlton where he became the youngest cook in the downtown Atlanta hotel. He would hold summer and extracurricular positions there until he turned 18.
Ambition is no question for Garvin as throughout the 90's, he's served as executive chef at Morton's in West Hollywood, Kassbah in West Hollywood, and sous chef at Ritz-Carlton Palm Springs at the age of 23.
Recently Blackvoices.com had the opportunity to speak to the exceptional chef and host of "Turn Up The Heat with G. Garvin" on his new show and his tremendous drive to be the best chef on television.
Excruciating, sudden, unexpected, burning pain are amongst the variety of adjectives which have been used to describe the onset of gout. It primarily affects men between the ages of 40 and 50 and in the U.S., and it affects African Americans twice as much as Caucasians. The disease, which is a form of arthritis, can usually affect the big toe causing unparalleled swelling.
Maurice Cheeks, coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, knows all to well just how debilitating the disease can be. "The pain is indescribable though, there is no way I would adequately be able to describe it."
A typical sufferer of gout is obese and has a higher risk of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease... pretty much the trifecta of killer diseases. Gout has famously been known as the "disease of kings" as it is more common in affluent societies with more access to diets rich in proteins, fat, and alcohol.
Black Voices' Denver Louis got a chance to sit down with coach Cheeks as he strives to bring awareness to this painful disease.
So FOX News contributerLiz Trotta thought it would be a good idea to joke about the killing of Sen. Barack Obama. Since Hilliary Clinton busted the seal on the idea with the RFK comment, I guess it's fair game to joke about.
But this was not a slip of the tongue, as you can see. We shouldn't let one comment like this slide. Not one. But since it looks like she'll get away with it, please, no more assassination remarks or jokes on national television! ...
Are you a fan of fatty foods, junk foods and pretty much most foods with no nutritional value? Well of course you are, who isn't?
Does your family have a history of stroke or heart disease?
If so than you may want to slow it down, because there's a good chance that you may be at risk and not even know it. Each year nearly 700,000 people are afflicted with some type of stroke. Of that number, 100,000 are African American. What's even more alarming though is that African Americans aretwice as likely as other ethnic groups to have a stroke and that one half of all African American women will die from a stroke or heart disease.
Earlier this month, Grammy Award winner, Bebe Winans and "Hip Hop Doc" Dr. Rani Whitfield teamed up and have been actively campaigning for stroke awareness through the American Stroke Association's, Power to End Stroke Campaign
For many college students, entering this uncertain job market can often be a daunting and nerve racking experience. But with graduation around the corner for some and summer fast approaching for others, too many bypass one of the most critical stepping stones along the way... getting an internship.
Earlier this year, The Thurgood Marshall College Fund released the book, Dream Internships: It's Not Who You Know, It's What You Know, which teaches students the significance of landing internships as well as giving them a crash course in how to interview for one.
Recently, Black Voices had an opportunity to sit down with Dwayne Ashley, the Chief Executive Officer and President of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund as well as the author of the book.
Mr. Ashley, who has been named to Ebony magazine's "100 Most Influential Black Americans" list for five consecutive years, shares some of his insights on the internship landscape as well as the importance of capitalizing on opportunities.
Mother's Day is fast approaching, do you know what you're going to get those special women in your life? Well this year Hallmark is making it easy with the release of these cards for just the occasion.
As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will be developing 6 African American-based cards for Hallmark just in time for Mother's Day.
With the appeal of Ultimate Fighting on an unprecedented rise, BET has decided to strike while the iron's hot by introducing television audiences to its own hybrid reality show/fighting contest with 'Iron Ring' which airs Tuesdays at 11 p.m. ET/PT.
The show integrates celebrities from music to sports (from Ludacris to Floyd Mayweather) as they manage some of the top competitors in the industry.
The action is raw and often unpredictable as these men beat each other to a pulp as they vie for the ultimate $100,000 payday.
Recently, Blackvoices' own Denver C. Louis got a chance to talk to Nelly on a few topics ranging from his own squad, Team Nelly, to who's winning if the celebrity managers ever decided to step in the ring. Here's what he had to say:
Former hip-hop radio personality Sunny Anderson, is making a jump from the broadcasting studio to the kitchen on her new Food Network show 'Cooking for Real.,'; which premieres April 6.
Through her time in the Air Force, Sunny was able to commute her wonderful personality to several radio positions which eventually lead her to New York's top-rated hip-hop radio powerhouse Hot 97. Within a year, 'Vibe' magazine rated her show as one of the top nine to listen to nationwide and crowned her, "Ruler of the Airwaves."
But despite her obvious talent for the microphone, Sunny has always maintained her equal love for all things food.
Although not be a professionally trained chef, she sure knows food.
After her 2005 appearance on 'Emeril Live,' which she described as her greatest "foodie" moment ever, plans were in the works for her own show, 'Cooking for Real.'
Read on as Sunny explains her love for food, her favorite chef and what a "foodie" is to Blackvoices' very ownDenver C. Louis.
I watch FOX News religiously and I tell every black person if you really want to know how white people think, you need to watch FOX News because that's their spot to say how they really feel, even against each other. I think FOX News is doing what they are supposed to do. What's your opinion of President Bush?
I love him. I love him to death and I would love to meet him. I think I'm one of those Republicans that maybe blindly agree with what he was trying to do. In the beginning of his Presidency he was not trying to engage the Middle East, he was trying to fix the economy. Yeah, it was a little overwhelming, which all Presidents go through. Look at the beginning of every Presidency, it's a little wobbly. But they get it together by the middle of the first term to go into reelection. On a level they were trying to stabilize the Middle East, so I can understand why Bush did what he did.
He was conservative, because he got off that stuff. Remember he was a party dude. He got off of it, we kind of related to him. A guy who was a C student. He promoted more black people into positions that Carter and Clinton. You had your first black Secretary of State under George Bush. Oh but some people say, Colin Powell is a token. Well I would love to have a token, with the background of Colin Powell, a leader. Yes he may have made a mistakes with 9/11, but everybody believed those reports were true. Everybody believed they had weapons because we sold them weapons when they were our friends. They had enough time when we were fooling around with the UN to destroy or hide weapons.
Look at it like this, here's a guy, that if you're talking about qualifications. He was governor of Texas, he lost an election. He learned his lesson by losing the Congressional election in Texas. His father was the head of the CIA. Here was a guy who learned how to position himself with humor, so people wouldn't be like, 'he's stupid' or 'he doesn't know what's going on'. But he got elected anyway. Then people say he stole an election, but what he did was let his people go in and watch the Democrats implode. Why? You just said you weren't going to count the black vote in Miami, but the law says you need to count all votes, if you're going to have a recount. All he did was out maneuver you, but you thought he was so stupid, you didn't see it coming.
If he's smart enough to have a Condoleeza Rice, and see we don't agree with Condoleeza because we don't agree with the administration. She's not the type of black person we support. Why not? Everybody goes to work, can't stand their boss, but have to do what they say. Not saying that she can't stand him but she's the Secretary of State, she speaks for the country and the administration. So I like George Bush because he's going to pan out to be a good President. Not one of our greatest, and he understands that too. But just think what would any other President have done if they had an attack like September 11th on their watch. Now I'm sure you understand that you are going against the grain of the majority of the Americans who would denounce President Bush...
How do you know that?
As far as the media projects, and as far as polls are concerned ...
That's what I want you to say because if you notice something you'll hear a survey says ... Don't nobody believe that. Surveys are only as good as the people you're asking. If you ask a 1000 people a certain question a certain way, you'll get a certain response. If you ask somebody should pedophiles be allowed to live across from a playground and an ice cream shop, people would go NO! Ask somebody should someone who has committed a crime be allowed to live near to where their victims who have a say. Do they have that right as an American? What you gonna get? Yes! They have a right as an American to live wherever they live. They served their debt to society. I asked the same question, I just asked it in a different way. Everybody is talking about how they hate George Bush. Now you may not have liked his policies and for those of us who never liked him, that's your business. But I bet you're going to cash the checks he's about to send you.
What do you think about the Spitzer scandal and should his wife have stayed by his side?
While it is a personal choice to remain in your marriage, I knew that if it had happened to me and I loved the guy, and I knew he had made a mistake and I knew there were mitigating circumstances, pressure at his job, insecurities that he never dealt with and such, I may be willing to forgive him. The issue is this guy is the chief enforcement officer for the state of New York. He was also an Attorney General, he was a lawyer. So he knew that he was breaking the law, engaging in illegal prostitution. So, to me, he needs to suffer the consequences. Now as far as his wife and his children, he should have thought before hand. Because he thought of that when he was using them to run for office and be Attorney General and then Governor. He thought of their image then and how the world perceived them. He should thought of the pain that they would go through being put out in the public eye.
What do you think of Patterson and more specifically him putting his dirty laundry out there before anyone even got to it. What do you make of that?
I think it's sad that everyone got to tell you every skeleton in their closet. That's like going to a job interview and while you doing the job interview you lay it all out. So that doesn't make any sense that that's the type of pressure we live under right now. That a mistake that we made in our past we have to bring it up now because the country has such a ravenous desire to know everything about you. Especially when they uplift you ... adulation, adulation, adulation ... and then they go, wait he can't be that good.
What are your feelings on Kwame Kilpatrick getting caught out there?
You know what, we have to go back to mentoring our young and putting people in their place. Just saying, 'brother don't do that.' Don't succumb to this. You see, Spitzer gets caught, and he resigns. Then he's going to write a book, and he's going to redeem himself because America loves redemption and rehabilitation. Then he's going to come back and he's going to speak either on behalf of legalizing prostitution or relaxing wire transfer laws. Something crazy is going to come out, and then they're going to make him the poster child of how you can be a great guy, stumble, and then come back.
A black man can't do that. Let me not say can't. It's very difficult. When did anyone go to Colin Powell and say, 'look brother, everyone believed that information was the same. So brother, we understand the mistake you made'. Nah, you don't see people saying that. You don't see him being invited to the NAACP awards or things like that. That brother was doing his job. Everybody thinks that he was speaking on behalf of himself. No, he was speaking on behalf of the country and the administration. So, with Kwame Kilpatrick ... one, his wife should stand by him if this is something that happened long ago based on however many text messages it was. Now, with regards to stepping down as mayor, I'm not necessarily sure he should step down. Now he broke the law of perjury, but if they could smooth it over with Bill Clinton, why is it an issue here?
Moving out of the political realm, a subject that has been in the news lately is the issue of Juanita Bynum and her marriage.
My opinion of Juanita Bynum is that I do have a concern when you are supposed to be a woman of God and a leader of the Church. When a guy is wrestling with you or fighting with you, or choking you outside of a airport hotel in Atlanta at 4 something in the morning or whatever time they were out there, is that where you should be as a woman? The unfortunate thing is that when you put yourself up above others, you're supposed to be this great religious leader, this great mind of great judgment. But you couldn't pick a man who would not put his hands on you? You couldn't pick a man who you would respect so you would not agitate him enough that he would put his hands on you?
Now I'm cleaning this up, because in my stage act I light her up because women got to understand a man will either beat you down mentally or beat you down physically. But something in you is attracted to that if this continues to happen over and over and over again. You may run into trouble when you start talking about being a woman of God and you proclaim yourself a leader of the Church... which I have a concern with because of the type of Church I was baptized in, the Church of Christ. We don't have women in the pulpit and authority over a man. And another thing is that you can't, all of a sudden jump in all the magazines, talking about you want to speak out against domestic violence. No, you should have been speaking out against domestic violence by the time you had a platform to do so. Not when it was happening to you, but when it was happening to others.
What do you think about her reuniting with her husband?
That's a difficult choice because when somebody becomes physically abusive and mentally abusive, I personally don't think I can tolerate that. I'm just speaking as myself. If we are fighting anywhere, maybe that's just a shortcoming of myself, but I don't think I would be able to change it once you hit me. I'm flinching everywhere; he could just be reaching for salt and I'm flinching. I'm scared he'll even call me, I'll think I'm in trouble. Plus how could I ever say anything about friends and how they are supposed to live their life if my man treats me a certain way? I can't say to my girlfriend, 'girl, I don't even know why you tolerate that.' She gonna tell me to check the dude I'm with, while I talk about her man. she would say, 'My man ain't never choked me at an airport at 4 in the morning.'
But another thing is the way that people think, when you mold people's minds spiritually and emotionally, you have a responsibility to that. So when you are supposed to be all of this, and you're still molding their minds, how are they supposed to look to you when they find out that your life is not the object of perfection that you say it used to be? Some people will question God even though they're not supposed to. You'll get your chance after chance after chance, but the guy on the street won't get those chances. The guy on the street that comes to Church day after day trying to get off that stuff or the girl in the street that can't stop sleeping with people because her self esteem is not strong enough; she don't get that pass over and over again. Her and the bishop need to go somewhere and sit down until they get their life together. That's what it takes to be the leader of the Church.
I'm not judging them, I'm just saying you're supposed to be this great thing. You had your wedding on the religious channel, so you already set yourself apart! You set yourself apart from regular people, so your downfall was just as bad. And people like this stuff. You find out your pastor might be a drug addict, homosexual, womanizer, violent, alcoholic...people like that. If people looked at them as human beings trying to serve God, then I don't think we would have these situations. So I feel that way about anybody who takes on the responsibility of having to be a leader in the Church.
What's your opinion on a show like 'Flava of Love' and what do you think about Flav?
Flava Flav is the sweetest, kindest, most loving person I know. Yeah, you know don't believe the hype. When he was a part of Public Enemy and made you think about things, people didn't have a problem with him. In a country where everything and everyone can exist, why can't we have a person like Flava Flav. We can't be all righteous all the time, just like we can't be all thug all the time, and we can't be clowns all the time because that's just not how we live.
Flava Flav was a guy that when rap was at its foundation, he was a part of it. If you knew him, you would know that he's not necessarily all of that, that's just one aspect of his personality. I'm not defending it. But what I want people to understand is that sometimes when you come to this business, you don't get to come as the George Clooneys, or the Brad Pitts, or the Angelina Jolies, you come in as something else.
What attracted you to comedy?
Well, I was going into college and I wanted to be in the entertainment industry, but I also wanted to have an in education. I wanted to be married, and I wanted to be in the military. So what I wanted was that life that I saw other girls have, you know, the Doris Days, and the Debbie Reynolds. I wanted to come home from making my movie at the studio and then make my children a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I wanted to make sure my husband had his pipe and slippers. I wanted all that. And I wanted to be smart enough to go in the entertainment business, and when it would be time to go on the other side of the camera, I could also produce, run the contracts with my lawyer, and do everything that I wanted to do because of my educational background. So that's what helped me get through school, my sense of humor.
That's when I met a Dr. Ether Smith, a Zeta out of Chicago, and she turned my on to Greek life. So I went on to pledge Zeta and I found out the intellectual aspect that existed within Greek letters and the idea of the ability they had to help the community. It was my family life, society, all my friends, white, black, Hispanic, Asian...everybody that I touched in my college life and my military life led me to where I am today.
How important is your faith in life?
It is the foundation of everything that I believe. It is the thing that allows me to have joy in living life. For example, I am running for the Presidency of Zeta Phi Beta Organization and people might say why would you do that with all the things you have on your plate? Well that answer is that I am grateful. One, that Zeta Phi Beta allowed me to function in the entertainment business and have some type of life that I could evolve into an even better woman and two that my faith in God says do something for someone other than yourself.
Well, it's been such a pleasure do you have any last remarks?
Very few people truly say how they feel, and even less say it as unabashedly as comedienne Sheryl Underwood.
Known for her no-holds-barred stand-up routine, Sheryl covers everything from sex, to current events, to politics. And make no mistake, she's earned stripes with a number of high profile comedy competitions including: the Johnny Walker Red Comedy Contest, the Funniest Woman at the Improv, the Old English Comedy Crunch and BET Comic View's Funniest Female Comedian.
And she also holds a Bachelor's and two Masters Degrees.
Far from your average comic, she makes it known that she is a God-fearing, conservative black Republican. A complex threat indeed. She openly proclaims her love for President George Bush -- while still supporting Sen. Barack Obama as her presidential candidate.
Below is an interview you won't forget from Blackvoices' Denver C. Louis.
(BlackDoctor.org) -- While African American women tend to have higher bone mineral density (BMD) than white women throughout life, they are still at significant risk of developing osteoporosis. The misperception that osteoporosis is only a concern for white women can delay prevention and treatment in African American women who do not believe they are at risk for the disease
In a segment on the 'Today Show' this week concerning the omnipresence of Barack Obama, an odd thing happened. 
Over the last few months, black America has seen some of its most privately held conspiracies being blown up by the media. The controversy has ranged from Senator Obama's pastor, Rev. Wright's incendiary sermon to Alicia Keys' rant about the government and 'gangsta' rap. 
Excruciating, sudden, unexpected, burning pain are amongst the variety of adjectives which have been used to describe the onset of gout. It primarily affects men between the ages of 40 and 50 and in the U.S., and 
He was conservative, because he got off that stuff. Remember he was a party dude. He got off of it, we kind of related to him. A guy who was a C student. He promoted more black people into positions that Carter and Clinton. You had your first black Secretary of State under George Bush. Oh but some people say, Colin Powell is a token. Well I would love to have a token, with the background of Colin Powell, a leader. Yes he may have made a mistakes with 9/11, but everybody believed those reports were true. Everybody believed they had weapons because we sold them weapons when they were our friends. They had enough time when we were fooling around with the UN to destroy or hide weapons.
