The Silent Killer: High Blood Pressure 101

About two years ago, my doctor saw a pattern in my blood pressure readings that indicated a problem. The readings were consistently higher than previous readings in the past. I wasn’t worried because I’d always had low blood pressure, so I figured that my readings had moved in the right direction. How uninformed I was. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends checking your blood pressure every two years. A reading of 140/90 is categorized as hypertension ( a systolic pressure — the top number — of 140 or above or a diastolic pressure — the bottom number — of 90 or above). Since HBP is a problem for many African Americans, get your own blood pressure monitor and check you pressure at WalMart, drug stores and other outlets that have the necessary equipment.

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What's Up With the Right Wing? Meet the Journalists

Stanford University economist Thomas Sowell argues that that the Right is made up of many different elements that have almost nothing to do with each other besides opposition to the Left:

What is called "the right" are simply the various and disparate opponents of the left. These opponents of the left may share no particular principle, much less a common agenda, and they can range from free-market libertarians to advocates of monarchy, theocracy, military dictatorship or innumerable other principles, systems and agendas.

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Save Your Money: Never Buy These Again

Remember the lines from the musical theme to the old television show  "Good Times..."easy credit rip-off, Good Times"?  We may think that ease and convenience make for "good times", but most of us have more time than money. Need some money saving food tips? Cross these items off your grocery store list—whether they're rip-offs, fakes, drastically unhealthy, or just plan gross, here are some foods you should never buy again.

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Could the New Pope Be A Black Man?

Pope Benedict XVI's resignation opens the possibility of the fourth Black Pope in the Catholic Church. Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria and Cardinal Peter Kodwo of Ghana have been mentioned as possibilities.

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Pope Benedict XVI Resigns

 

Pope Benedict XVI said Monday he lacks the strength to fulfill his duties and on Feb. 28 will become the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. The announcement sets the stage for a conclave in March to elect a new leader for world’s 1 billion Catholics. The announcement took the Vatican — and the rest of the world — by surprise.

Benedict emphasized that carrying out the duties of being pope — the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide — requires “both strength of mind and body.”

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he told the cardinals.

The move allows the Vatican to hold a conclave before Easter to elect a new pope.
The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants. The most famous resignation was Pope Celestine V in 1294; Dante placed him in hell for it.

When Benedict was elected at age 78, he was the oldest pope chosen in nearly 300 years. At the time, he has already been planning to retire as the Vatican’s chief orthodoxy watchdog to spend his final years writing in the “peace and quiet” of his native Bavaria.

 

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On the Record: Actress-Activist Kerry Washington



 

You may know her as Olivia Pope, Washington fixer, crisis management expert, and girlfriend to U. S. President Fitzgerald Grant, the most powerful man in the world. She's the lead actress in Shonda Rhimes' 2012 popular drama Scandal. 

Maybe you recognize her from her most recent role as Broomhilda von Shaft, Django's wife in Quentin Tarintino's film Django Unchained. Her performances as Ray Charles' wife Dela Bea Robinson in the award winning film Ray and Idi Amin's wife in The Last King of Scotland showcased her talents also. She also appeared in Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls in 2010.  But after her recent recognition at the NAACP Image Awards, people stand up and cheer for Kerry Washington not only as an accomplished actress, but also a political activist.

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Eat Early- Shed Weight

Most people working on losing weight have heard the caution to eat before 6:00 p.m. Sometimes we make it, sometimes we don't. Now a recent scientific study proves that in trying to control your weight,when you eat matters as much as what you eat.

In the study, four hundred twenty overweight men and women were monitored for 20 weeks. The subjects all had the same calorie intake of 1400 calories per day. At the end of the test period, early eaters lost an average of 22 pounds, while late eaters averaged just 17 pounds. Scientists know the effect of sleep and our biological clocks affect weight regulation. Not even the differences in exercise, hunger levels, or sleep habits made as much of an impact as the time meals were eaten.

The study suggests we eat lunch as our main meal of the day, ideally before 3:00 p.m. Here are some other well known keys to losing weight fast:

• Drink more water
• Eat breakfast everyday
• Eat smaller meals, more often
• Eat fish two or three times weekly (an red meat at most once)
• Spend at least 30 minutes on a meal
• Drink two cups of caffeinated coffee daily
• Bring two small snacks, i.e. a piece of fruit, a cup of low-fat dairy, to work every day
• Eat a small bit of dark chocolate daily
• Count steps- at least 10,000 per day
• Incorporate heart-healthy nuts and olive oil into your meals
• Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, especially berries
• Weigh yourself once a week
• Eat at the table, with your food on a small plate

Hopefully, following these easy guidelines will give you a new way of thinking about food and weight loss. Emphasize healthy, whole foods over unhealthy, processed ones. Eat healthy, feel better, and live longer.

Good Eating,
Silverlady

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Five New Behaviors For A New Lifestyle: A Thinner Me in 2013

Welcome to Part Three of my series on "A Thinner Me in 2013". I hope you've learned a few new facts about eating healthier and have made a few changes that will lead to a healthier you. Here are some suggestions for five new behaviors that can lead to weight loss.

• Be Wary of "Diet" FoodsI can't tell you how often I actually gained weight on foods labeled "low fat" or "fat free". Often these products are loaded with sugar to make up for the taste lost when the fat is removed. Since many "diet" foods are also highly processed, you end up getting fewer nutrients and lots of empty calories. I finally learned to stay away from these so called "diet" foods and learned to eat smaller helpings of a higher-fat food periodically. It's a behavior change that will last a lifetime.

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Tim Scott and "Mo" Cowan: Historical Pair in the U. S. Senate

For the first time in history, there are two African Americans serving in the United States Senate. SC Governor Nikki Haley appointed freshman Republican Congressman Tim Scott to replace Senator Jim De Mint who left the post to head the Heritage Foundation. After John Kerry resigned his Senate seat to assume his duties as Secretary of State, MA Governor Deval Patrick appointed his former Chief Legal Counsel and Chief of Staff William "Mo" Cowan to fill the vacancy until the June 25th statewide election to determine a permanent replacement. Let's take a look at these men who are making history with their service.

Timothy Eugene "Tim" Scott (born September 19, 1965) is the junior United States Senator for South Carolina, in office since 2013. Previously he was the U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 1st congressional district from 2011 to 2013. Elected in November 2010 to the 112th Congress, he was the first Republican African-American Representative from South Carolina since 1897. Scott was also one of the two members of the 2010 freshman class chosen to sit at the House Republican leadership table. Scott, a fiscal and cultural conservative, ran for Congress on a platform of reducing federal spending and taxes. He was endorsed by Tea Party groups.

Previously, Scott served one term in the South Carolina General Assembly (2009–2011), and 13 years on the Charleston County Council (1996–2008). A graduate of Charleston Southern University, Scott owns an insurance agency and has worked as a financial advisor.

On December 17, 2012, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley named Scott to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jim DeMint who announced his resignation earlier that month. At the time of his appointment, Scott wass the only African American member of the United States Senate as well as only the seventh African American to have ever served in the United States Senate. Scott is the first-ever African-American senator from the state of South Carolina and the first from the South since 1881.

Scott took office on January 2, a day before the rest of the freshman senators, resulting in a seniority ranking of 88, several places ahead of where he would have been had he been inaugurated on the regular date. He was joined by a second African-American Senator in the 113th Congress following the appointment of William "Mo" Cowan to the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts on January 30, 2013.

 

Cowan is a graduate of Duke University and Northeastern University School of Law, and lives in Stoughton, Massachusetts with his wife, Stacy, and their two young sons.

 

Cowan is the former chief of staff and chief legal counsel to Governor Patrick, having served in the Patrick-Murray Administration since 2009.

 

From 1997 to 2009, Cowan practiced civil litigation as an associate and later a partner in the Boston office of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC and as a Special Assistant District Attorney in the Office of the Middlesex County District Attorney.

Governor Patrick turned down former Congressman Barney Frank, who actively sought the interim appointmen, in favor of Cowan.


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NASA Remembers Lost Heroes

Ten years ago, the shuttle Columbia crumbled to Earth after 16 days in the heavens. As the shuttle passed over Tyler, Texas en route to a routine landing in Florida, its left wing failed to withstand the heat of reentry. The craft burst into more than 83,000 pieces, showering the land below for hundreds of miles. The seven astronauts aboard were killed.

To honor their memory and the loss of previous crews from the shuttle Challenger in 1986 and Apollo 1 in 1967, NASA scheduled memorials for its annual Day of Remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery and at the Space Mirror Memorial in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

 

 

 

The nation's history and its involvement in space exploration and the race to put a man on the moon heralds the American exceptionalism that we often talk about.  It reminds us that we can focus our resolve on an issue of national importance and accomplish our goal. America can do great things and will once again when the American people demand it from our leadership.

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