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Quotes about Black Women from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"And it's not just black women, it's all women." But there's a special pressure on black women. "Throughout the history of slavery, black women and men were used as a commodity, and because our look was so different, it was a point to ostracize us. There is this pressure that you have to look a certain way to be accepted. The way I look is still not quite as accepted as the way a White woman looks," Felicia said. "So part of it is about wanting to project a nice-looking image, but it also harkens back to how we've been perceived in this country, as different and other." - Stacy Malkan, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (Get the book.)

"Cardiovascular disease is also a major cause of disability in older women. For black women, the risk of heart-related death is twice as high as for white women.6 Even though heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women, the rates of coronary disease (but not necessarily death) at virtually every age are higher in men than in women.7 When women are in their thirties and forties, the difference between men and women is four- to fivefold. After that, the difference shrinks with increasing age." - Tori Hudson, N.D., Women's Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine: Alternative Therapies and Integrative Medicine for Total Health and Wellness (Get the book.)

"But there's a special pressure on black women. "Throughout the history of slavery, black women and men were used as a commodity, and because our look was so different, it was a point to ostracize us. There is this pressure that you have to look a certain way to be accepted. The way I look is still not quite as accepted as the way a White woman looks," Felicia said. "So part of it is about wanting to project a nice-looking image, but it also harkens back to how we've been perceived in this country, as different and other." - Stacy Malkan, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (Get the book.)

"Beginning at age 50, hypertension is more common in women rhan in men and even more so in black women. See Table 9.1 for new blood pressure guidelines set in 2003. Isolated systolic hypertension (systolic BP of 160 mm Hg or greater) or combined hypertension (systolic BP of 160 or greater and diastolic BP of 90 or greater) is directly related to increased death rates from cardiovascular disease. Impaired tolerance to glucose is another risk factor for heart disease. Women with higher than normal blood sugar or who are clinically diabetic are at increased risk." - Tori Hudson, N.D., Women's Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine: Alternative Therapies and Integrative Medicine for Total Health and Wellness (Get the book.)

"There is an argument that since black women have a lower fracture risk than white women at every level of bmd (Cauley et al. 2005), race-specific normative data must be established so that screening can be race specific (Acheson 2005). There are similar arguments afoot for screening men. New and "better" drugs are trickling into this market, in particular biologic agents that are impressively priced. Teriparatide is a fragment of human parathyroid hormone that was licensed by the fda. It is touted because it causes bone accretion, as opposed to bisphosphonates, which slow resorption." - Nortin M. Hadler MD, Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (Get the book.)

"As shown in Figure 5, the group with the highest prevalence of insufficiency was non-Hispanic black women. Risk for poor vitamin D status was related to skin color (although it was not directly measured), suggesting that sun exposure (and availability of UVB to make cholecalciferol) was an important determinant of status. As described earlier and in Table 5, African Americans tend to consume less dairy and therefore less dietary vitamin D. Levels of 25(OH)D are influenced by exposure of skin to UVB and by dietary intakes of ergocalciferol or cholecalciferol." - Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey, Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Get the book.) "Further support of the role of vitamin D insufficiency in cancer development relates to the finding that in addition to their well-documented low 25(OH) D levels as a group, Black men in the United States have a 40% higher rate for total cancer mortality, whereas black women have a 20% higher mortality rate compared to their white counterparts [79]. Giovannucci et al." - Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey, Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Get the book.)

"National Congress of black women, Inc. www.nationalcongressbw.org National Organization for Women www.now.org Organic Consumers Association www.organicconsumers.org Public Citizen www.citizen." - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It (Get the book.) "END BOX] Talcum Powder and Your Risk of Cancer The mortality of ovarian cancer, a relatively rare cancer at any age, has escalated dramatically in women sixty-five years of age and older over the last three decades: 33 percent in white women, and 47 percent in black women. There are about 15,300 deaths from ovarian cancer each year, making it the fourth most common fatal cancer in women, after breast, colon, and lung cancer." - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It (Get the book.) "Faye Williams of the National Congress of black women, submitted a second petition to the FDA, further updating the scientific evidence on the lethal effects of talc. It requested that the FDA require that all cosmetic talc products bear labels with a warning such as: "Frequent application of talcum powder in the female genital area substantially increases the risk of ovarian cancer." - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It (Get the book.)

"When USA white and black women are compared for vitamin D levels, black women are ten times more likely to be vitamin D deficient.1 2. In patients in Minneapolis, Minnesota who were being treated for chronic pain, 100% of African Americans, along with Native Americans, East Africans and Hispanics were vitamin D deficient.2 3. Vitamin D is known to be a potent inhibitor of tuberculosis. African Americans have lower resistance to tuberculosis, lower levels of D and lower ability to produce cathelicidin, a natural internal bactericide.3 4." - Marc Sorenson, Solar Power For Optimal Health (Get the book.)

"As many as one-third of white women and one-half of black women are 20 percent or more over rheir desirable body weight. Between the ages of 30 and 60, and in each of the decades in this age group, women who have had either surgical or natural menopause have twice the rate of CAD compared to women in their age group who still have premenopausal ovarian function.11 Women who have had both ovaries removed have a higher rate of CAD at an earlier age than women who undergo natural menopause." - Tori Hudson, N.D., Women's Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine: Alternative Therapies and Integrative Medicine for Total Health and Wellness (Get the book.)

"Toxemia was more common among the poor, teenagers, black women, unmarried women, older women with many children, women with diabetes, women with high blood pressure prior to pregnancy, lupus, and so on. There were a whole gamut of things associated with toxemia—it had been and still is studied to death. Yet then and even now the official line is "nobody knows what causes toxemia." Ironically, our instructor Ferguson had studied in Chicago with William Dieckmann, the author of a textbook Toxemias of Pregnancy." - Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Natural Medicine, Optimal Wellness: The Patient's Guide to Health and Healing (Get the book.)

"The risk of heart failure is 40% greater in black men than white men and 100% higher in black women than white women. 8. The lower the level of vitamin D, the greater is the risk of arterial calcification. 9. Vitamin D prevents arterial inflammation. 10. Survival rates for CVD patients in sunny rooms are 25% better than for patients in dark rooms. 11. Higher levels of vitamin D correlate to reduced peripheral artery disease (PAD)." - Marc Sorenson, Solar Power For Optimal Health (Get the book.)

"Throughout the history of slavery, black women and men were used as a commodity, and because our look was so different, it was a point to ostracize us. There is this pressure that you have to look a certain way to be accepted. The way I look is still not quite as accepted as the way a White woman looks," Felicia said. "So part of it is about wanting to project a nice-looking image, but it also harkens back to how we've been perceived in this country, as different and other. We tend to want to be very careful about the way we're perceived with looks and hygiene." - Stacy Malkan, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (Get the book.)

"This is simply not enough. Estimate your sleep time by the amount of time you are in bed each night. If you have a problem with fatigue and achiness and are sleeping less than seven hours a night, your first goal should be to increase the amount of sleep you're getting. As you get used to having longer sleep durations, over the course of several weeks, you should start feeling more refreshed upon awakening. One problem that leads to difficulties with sleep is using your bed as your office. Too many people can't bring themselves to turn out the light and get comfortable when they go to bed." - Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D., Your Symptoms Are Real: What to Do When Your Doctor Says Nothing Is Wrong (Get the book.)

"When production needs grew, black women were allowed into the workforce. A half century later, Phil recalled the patients he would see at the arsenal. "We had a hospital on the grounds to take care of all casualties—black or white—that would arise from routine army work, including that at the nearby arsenal. Most of the patients I saw in the dispensary came from the chemical plant." "But they must have been using gas masks even back then?" I asked. "Everyone knew this was poisonous material to be around, right?" "Of course they were given masks," he replied. "That didn't mean they used them." - Devra Davis, The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Get the book.) "In America, for breast and colorectal cancers as well as cervical cancer, black women tend to be diagnosed at a later stage of disease, receive more radiation and less surgery, and die more often. The ability to get medical care of any kind declines for those who live in the rural South. Even in urban areas today, recent cuts in basic medical services mean that fewer women will receive Pap smears. Access to care for all working-class people remains imperiled as a result of ever-shrinking federal funding. The situation in developing countries is much worse." - Devra Davis, The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Get the book.) "Then as now, far more black women got the disease and died of it. The fact that this ailment was uniquely a women's disease that disproportionately affected those then called "coloreds" combined to made cervical cancer less than a high priority for doctors. More accessible forms of cancer might produce visible or palpable lesions, lumps and bumps that, once found and recognized, gave doctors a fighting chance to cut out the growth and arrest the disease." - Devra Davis, The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Get the book.) "I tried to tell the health commissioner it makes no sense to be pushing mammographic screening, especially on young black women. If anything their breasts are even more dense than those of white women. If we start regularly putting them through the radiation that comes with mammography at a young age, we are just going to see more breast cancer down the road and lots more unnecessary cutting for biopsies of things that look suspicious but really aren't." At this point, it's clear that many breast cancer activists recognize the wisdom of Kuller's views." - Devra Davis, The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Get the book.)

"Black women had an average level of 18.1 ng/ml. 8. Black men had an average level of 20.9 ng/ml. 9. People over 60 years old had lower levels than younger people (18-59). The only group that averaged slightly above the minimum recommended by Dr. Hollis was white men. And considering that these figures are averages, it is likely that just slightly less than half of white men are also insufficient. Vitamin D deficiency is a pandemic, but one that could be resolved by a change in national health policies regarding sunlight exposure." - Marc Sorenson, Solar Power For Optimal Health (Get the book.)

"Black women often have slightly greater bone mass than do other women, which helps protect against bone fractures. In men, testosterone partially protects against bone loss even after middle age. Beyond issues of race, age, and gender, incidence varies widely from society to society, suggesting that osteoporosis is largely preventable. What are the symptoms of osteoporosis? Osteoporosis is a silent disease that may not be noticed until a broken bone occurs. Signs may include diminished height, rounded shoulders, dowager's hump, and evidence of bone loss from diagnostic tests." - Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D., The Natural Pharmacy: Complete A-Z Reference to Natural Treatments for Common Health Conditions (Get the book.) "Adolescents and black women should strive for gains at the upper end of the recommended range. Short women (less than five feet) should strive for gains at the lower end of this range. Obese women (BMI greater than 29) have a separate recommended target weight gain of about 6 kg (13.2 pounds). Published studies suggest that only 30-40% of American women actually have weight gains within the IOM's recommended ranges.16,17'18 Although the IOM's national recommendations concerning pregnancy weight gain have been widely adopted, they have not been universally accepted." - Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D., The Natural Pharmacy: Complete A-Z Reference to Natural Treatments for Common Health Conditions (Get the book.)

"The 1983 to 1989 five-year relative survival for colon cancer was 61% among white men, 59% among white women, 48% among black men, and 49% among black women. Analysis of the National Cancer Institute's Black/White Cancer Survival Study found that black men and women with colorectal cancer had a 50% greater probability of dying of colon cancer than did white men and women. These differences in survival rates are likely related to diminished vitamin D synthesis in the skin of dark-skinned people. The best diet only provides a few hundred units of vitamin D, even when fortified milk is consumed." - Bill Sardi, You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore (Get the book.)

"Professor Malcolm Whitehead, a pulpiteer for HRT and consultant obstetrician at King's College Hospital, London, addressing a conference of black women with the Minister for Health, and exhorting them to try HRT, walked out of the room when Maggie subjected him to one of her tirades. Maggie sees clearly through these civilised obfuscations: When you see and hear women suffering and you get some idiot who you know is wrong arguing with you, I can't keep quiet. I wasn't brought up as an educated person. I'm not like a politician. I just say it as it is." - Martin J. Walker, HRT Licensed to Kill and Maim: The Unheard Voices of Women Damaged by Hormone Replacement Therapy (Get the book.) "In the middle of the fighting between the pro and anti trenches, in October 1998, speaking to reporters from the Sunday Telegraph, Malcolm Whitehead, that great contemporary visionary of HRT so keen to urge it on black women, seemed to lose the plot. According to journalists Victoria Macdonald and Simon Ferguson, who headed their article 'HRT problems are women's fault, says top doctor', Whitehead gave the injudicious opinion that: Fifty per cent of women who demand HRT from their doctors have heard about it in a conversation over the garden fence, from the television or relatives." - Martin J. Walker, HRT Licensed to Kill and Maim: The Unheard Voices of Women Damaged by Hormone Replacement Therapy (Get the book.)

"Kanetsky PA, Gammon MD, Mandelblatt J, et al: Dietary intake and blood levels of lycopene: association with cervical dysplasia among non-Hispanic, black women. Nutr Cancer 31(l):31-40. 1998. Khachik F, Beecher GR, Smith Jr JC. Lutein, lycopene, and their oxidative metabolites in chemoprevention of cancer. J Cell Biochem 22(suppl):236-246. 1995. Khachik F, Pfander H, Traber B. Proposed mechanisms for the formation of synthetic and natural occurring metabolites of lycopene in Tomato products and human serum. J Agric Ed Chem 46:4885-4890. 1998." - Thomson Healthcare, Inc., PDR for Herbal Medicines, Fourth Edition (Get the book.)

"For example, in Boston, as many as 73 percent of black women giving birth are chronically deficient in vitamin D. Part of that is due to the highly efficient skin properties of blacks that block ultraviolet rays, thereby reducing the creation of vitamin D in colder climates. The net result is that their children are being born with Vitamin D deficiencies. They are actually predisposed to a lifetime of diabetes or schizophrenia, or even cancer, due to a chronic vitamin D deficiency that can be reversed if the information is made available." - Mike Adams, Natural Health Solutions (Get the book.)

"Could it be that black women need 6,000-10,000 IU per day for sufficiently high blood levels to prevent bone loss? The idea is fertile ground for further research. Chapter 10 shows that in most studies, supplements do indeed help prevent osteoporosis. Supplementing vitamin D by nursing mothers helps increase vitamin D to desirable levels in their breast-fed infants. One study showed that forty-six percent of mothers and eighty percent of infants had serum vitamin D levels below 25 nmol/L (10 ng/ml).6" That level indicates severe deficiency." - Marc Sorenson, Solar Power For Optimal Health (Get the book.)

"Yet the ads in magazines aimed at black women suggest that all it takes is a change of shampoo, conditioner, perm, or relaxer for the hair to appear resilient and bouncy, without any negative side effects. That is absolutely not the case, and in fact, it is physiologically impossible. In truth, the options are limited; there are no perms or relaxers that can make fragile African hair smooth without causing damage (and there are assuredly no herbal or plant-based ones either)." - Paula Begoun, Don't Go Shopping for Hair-Care Products Without Me (Get the book.)

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