Plasma Lycopene Is Associated with Pizza and Pasta Consumption in Middle-Aged and Older African American and White Adults in the Southeastern USA in a Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: The role of dietary lycopene in chronic disease prevention is not well known.

Methods: This study examined intake of lycopene and other antioxidants from lycopene-rich foods (e.g.

Obesity and prostate cancer screening among African-American and Caucasian men.

Background: Differential prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing practices according to obesity-related comorbid conditions may contribute to inconsistent results in studies of obesity and prostate cancer. We investigated the relationship between obesity and PSA testing, and evaluated the role of prior diagnoses and disease screening on PSA testing patterns.

Methods: Men, 40 and 79 years old and without prior prostate cancer were recruited from 25 health centers in the Southern US (n = 11,558, 85% African-American).

Roots of prostate cancer in African-American men.

To fully understand the role of genetics and environment (biotic, abiotic and sociocultural) in the prostate cancer disparity experienced by African-American men, this paper examined the rates of prostate cancer among African-American men and one of their ancestral populations in west Africa. Data sources were from the World Health Organization (WHO) and reported hospital records in the literature. Based on the WHO's worldwide cancer data, west African men have much lower prostate cancer incidence and mortality compared to African-American men.

Prostate cancer screening between low-income African-American and Caucasian men.

Objective: African-Americans (AA) are more likely than Caucasians (CA) to be diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, perhaps due to delayed detection. We investigated racial differences in prostate cancer screening according to age and socioeconomic and demographic indices in a large and predominantly low-income population.

Methods: In-person interviews were conducted with 12,552 men, 84% AA, recruited during 2002 through 2004 from 25 community health centers in the southern United States.

Does nondipping of blood pressure at night reflect a trait of blunted cardiovascular responses to daily activities?

Background: Individuals who fail to show a decline in blood pressure (BP) when asleep or at night (labeled nocturnal nondippers) are at elevated risk for hypertension and associated target-organ damage.

Purpose: We tested whether the well-established changes in BP exhibited in response to daily activities are also blunted in nocturnal nondippers.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of 41 women and 56 men, aged 27 to 71 years, residing in Benin, Nigeria, enrolled in a health survey of civil servants.

Genetic variation in the apolipoprotein D gene among African blacks and its significance in lipid metabolism.

Apolipoprotein D (APOD, gene; apoD, protein) is a plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-associated glycoprotein, with a putative role in the cholesterol (CHOL) transport pathway. An apoD protein polymorphism has been previously reported by us. The cathodically shifted pattern seen on isoelectric focusing gels, controlled by the APOD*2 allele, was found to be unique to populations of African ancestry.