“I had to fight for my life a couple of times [after the surgery],” admits Big Boy. “I was in the intensive care unit for 10 days. I had to be fed through a feeding tube, have multiple blood transfusions… It was awful. That’s why I tell people that surgery [for weight loss] should always be your last option—if at all.”

Big Boy says while he didn’t turn to weight-loss surgery as a first resort, he
now wishes he’d worked harder to take the weight off on his own. Back in 2002 he was able to shed a considerable amount of weight following an on-air challenge by longtime friend and superstar actor Will Smith, who’d offered to donate $1,000 for every pound Big Boy lost to the charity of his choice. “I was able to drop more than 111-pounds through diet and exercise,” explains the media titan, who admits the health-conscious path was short-lived. “The first thing I did after I weighed in and got that $111,000 check was ride straight from the radio station to this Mexican restaurant to get some chicken nachos. My mind still wasn’t right about my eating habits.”

Will Smith paying off his weight loss challenge bet to Big Boy

The repercussions of Big Boy’s bad eating were immediate—and serious. “I could feel all that new weight in my back,” he says, admitting he gained all 111-pounds back and then some. “My legs started getting numb and the one time I was walking through the Burbank airport and I got short of breath and I had to stop walking. That had never happened to me before. It scared me.”

Despite witnessing other people in his life—including his mom—fall victim to obesity, it wasn’t until his health was at risk that Big Boy finally understood he was literally eating himself into an early grave. “I’ve had a series of ‘aha’ moments about my weight over the years,” he shares. “For starters my mom passed at the age of 57. She had high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, diabetes—all these weight-related issues.

“Plus, friends of mine were passing away who weighed less than me,” Big Boy continues, referring to the late rap star Christopher “Big Pun” Rios, who passed away in 2000—even after dropping 100 pounds. “I remember being on the phone with him, saying ‘Man, we’ve got to get it together.’ After he died, I started to think: Do I have more years behind me than I have in front of me? That’s one hell of a question.”

Fortunately, for Big Boy, the answer was a resounding no. In the past few years the married father of two has committed himself to keeping the weight off—with the help of pick-up basketball games, martial arts, weight loss support groups, mentoring from his doctor and a nutritionist. “I realized through writing this book that food—like in many African-American families—was a source of comfort [for me],” he says. “Now I still love food but I know more about nutrition, portion size and exercise, and I’m passing these new food habits on to my kids.”

Big Boy hopes that, following the death of even more famous Black men who have long
struggled with weight, including Gerald Levert and more recently rapper Dwight “Heavy D” Myers, his story will also serve as motivation for brothers to take better care of themselves. “We don’t go to the doctor enough,” says Big Boy, who recently shot a TV pilot and signed a development deal with VH1. “There’s no buddy-system around us taking care of our health. Cats will say, ‘Let’s go to the strip club,’ before they’ll say, ‘Let’s sign up to get prostrate exams,’ and even though that sounds
crazy, it’s necessary… Not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight,
making sure everything is working right and all of your tests are up to date will
save your life.”

Click here to view Big Boy’s before and after photos.

James Osborne

Two years ago, James Osborne, 39, walked into an emergency room with severe swelling in his ankles, calves and thighs. He started to put on weight several months prior to his hospital visit, but chalked it up to a lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet. “I’ve always been a big guy,” says the former college football player. “I knew I wasn’t hitting the gym or eating the best foods, so I thought I was just gaining weight.”

The doctors gave Osborne a urinalysis and discovered that he had a whopping 59,000 milligrams of protein in his urine (the amount of protein in a random sample of urine is normally less than eight milligrams). He was admitted into the hospital on the spot and stayed for two weeks. He was later diagnosed with Membranous Nephropathy, a rare kidney disorder that leads to changes and inflammation of the structures inside the kidney that help filter wastes and fluids.

“I was walking around with 100 pounds of fluid and I didn’t realize it,” says Osborne, a sewer foreman from Woodbridge, NJ. “The doctor told me that was the highest amount of protein he’d ever seen in his medical career. He couldn’t believe that I was able to function and that my kidneys weren’t completely shot. But the scariest thing of all is that I didn’t realize how sick I was until I started feeling better.”

According to BlackHealthZone.com, approximately 20 million Americans have some form of kidney disease. An even more sobering statistic: Black men between the ages of 20 to 29 are 10 times more likely to develop kidney failure due to high blood pressure than Caucasian men in the same age group. Furthermore, African American men between the ages of 30 to 39 are about 14 times more likely to develop kidney failure than their White counterparts. While hypertension and diabetes are the leading causes of kidney disease in the United States, when zeroing in on why the progression to kidney failure in the African American community is at a much higher rate, it may simply come down to two things: genetics and a lack of proper healthcare.

“There does seem to be an association between two particular genes in African Americans that are associated in developing kidney disease,” says Dr. Bryan Becker, former president of the National Kidney Foundation. “MYH9 and another gene called APLO1 seem to be more prominent in African Americans than individuals who aren’t African American, so there is probably something related to that. Second, we know that access to healthcare and reducing healthcare disparity likely has a beneficial impact on chronic kidney disease. If African American men develop hypertension and don’t have as much access to healthcare services, they miss out on treatment for their blood pressure and screenings for kidney disease at the right time to identify it and get the right treatment to prevent it. Reducing healthcare disparities, which we need to do for everybody, would benefit the African American community by increasing the number of people who are screened.”

Click here to continue reading…

(Image: ThinkStock)

To help raise awareness about kidney disease among high-risk individuals who can’t afford a doctor, The National Kidney Foundation created KEEP: The Kidney Early Evaluation Program, a pop-up kidney disease screening site where participants receive a comprehensive health risk appraisal, blood pressure measurement, as well as blood and urine testing.

“Identifying individuals who are at risk for chronic kidney disease has a tremendous benefit in raising awareness and helping those who have the disease get access to the right type of treatment much more quickly than if they had waited until a sign or symptom showed itself,” says Dr. Becker, who sites odd aches and pains, difficulty concentrating and abnormal fatigue and sleep patterns as common symptoms of kidney malfunction. “A quarter of the people who appear to be most at risk usually end up having kidney disease. If they choose to be screened, individuals must feel comfortable with the fact that they may gain health information that they don’t want to know.”

Dr. Becker also wants people to know that kidney disease is not a death sentence. In fact, it’s treatable, manageable and doesn’t have to completely alter one’s lifestyle. Superstar athletes Sean Elliot and Alonzo Mourning are great examples of people who continued to lead a very active lifestyle both on and off the court before even getting their transplants. More recently, actor/entrepreneur Nick Cannon was hospitalized for “mild kidney failure” before getting released and returning to work.

“There is no reason that patients with chronic kidney disease can’t engage in significant activities,” says Dr. Becker. “We actually recommend that people with kidney failure or who are on dialysis be as active as they possibly can. They need to keep their muscles working and their metabolism as improved as possible, because if the person ends up needing a transplant, we want them healthy and fit.”

Fortunately, for Osborne, that fateful trip to the emergency room came just in the nick of time; he’s been able to manage his kidney disease without needing a transplant or dialysis. He’s also seen a vast improvement in his weight, cholesterol and kidney function with the help of a well-balanced diet, regular exercise and a few medications, including the steroid prednisone.

“I’m much healthier and able to keep up with my one-year-old son,” he says. “I hope more people will start to take responsibility for their health. If you know you aren’t feeling well; you’ve got family members on dialysis; or diabetes and hypertension runs in your family, get up off your butt and go get tested. You might just save your life.”

For additional information, check out the National Kidney Foundation’s 10 facts about African-Americans and kidney disease.

Sonja Lewis's new novel explores life without children

Is a woman any less of a woman if she never has kids?

It may sound like a silly question to some, but for longtime friends and journalists Pam Oliver and Sonja Lewis, it’s one they spent many years trying to answer.

Oliver, a popular on-air broadcaster for Fox Sports, and Lewis, a former newspaper reporter and the author of the new aptly-titled novel The Barrenness, say they each did some serious soul-searching before deciding NOT to give birth—even though, in many ways, the decision had already been made for them.

“We both suffered from fibroids,” shares Oliver, who serves as an inspiration for Lewis’ thought-provoking book about a successful woman who is attempting to define her own happiness, with or without kids. Both Oliver and Lewis got married in their late 30s. “Mine was a particularly terrible case,” says Oliver, a stepmother of three. “By my late 30s/early 40s, my thought was, ‘I don’t think that it’s going to be.’ It would have been a medical miracle if I had been able to get pregnant. Still, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility,” she says. “In the end, though, as hard as it was to watch the door close, I didn’t fight very hard to keep it open.”

Oliver says this was largely because she was satisfied with nearly every other aspect of her life, including a high-profile career, constant traveling and tight bonds with friends and family. She, like Lewis, who is also a stepmom, opted not to undergo painful surgeries or empty their bank accounts on expensive fertility treatments. Instead, they each embraced that eternal empty-nest syndrome. It’s a decision neither woman regrets, even with the various societal pressures and stigmas that stem from being childless by a certain age.

FOX News Sportscaster Pam Oliver inspired 'The Barranness'

“I went to a class reunion two years ago, and when the topic of kids came up it was a bit awkward,” says Lewis. “People just don’t understand it. They don’t believe that I am happy. They were still saying to me, at age 47, ‘Oh girl, it’s not too late,’ and I am like, ‘I don’t think so, honey.’”

Still, Oliver does admit innocent questions can sometimes still make her feel like a bit of a failure, despite the reality that one in every five women beyond childbearing age in the United States do not have kids, according to the Pew Institute.

“The conversation is usually so frustrating to me,” she says. “It’s like I get this thing in my stomach. It’ll start off great with something like, ‘We saw you on TV the other day,’ and then [segue into], ‘Do you have kids?’ and I’ll say ‘no.’ That’s the part where I feel like I almost have to apologize, like this is the part where I disappoint you.”

Although her book The Barranness is fiction,  Lewis says she wants readers, particularly women, to know the message is true: You are no less of a woman if you don’t procreate.

“I wanted to set the record straight, dispel the myth around not having kids,” the author says of her critically acclaimed offering. “Motherhood is fantastic; but even if you’re not a mother, you can still be fulfilled as a woman.”

(Image: ThinkStock)

Here’s a recap of some news that’s come across the wire this week as we trek through the final stretch into Christmas 2011. Brace yourselves; it’s not pretty:

A woman was set on fire in the elevator of her apartment building by a handyman who admitted he killed her because she owed him money for back jobs.

An entire family—mother, father, daughter, son, even the family dog—died when their small plane crashed into a New Jersey highway 14 minutes after taking off for reasons as yet unknown.

A mother and her two young children returned to their brand new home—funded through Habitat for Humanity—to find that their house had been broken into, ransacked, everything (including Christmas gifts) taken.

It’s hard to read this stuff no less endure it if you’re actually involved. These are the types of stories that make us question humanity. What’s become of us? How can we live in a world in which things like this—and worse—just keep happening? Why do bad things happen to good people?

But there’s always a flip side. Like, the stories highlighting the many secret Santa’s at stores across the country who are anonymously paying off random people’s layaway debt. Or, stepping up in line to pay the bills of those waiting to go next. And there’s the story of my friend Jan, who will celebrate two years since her cancer diagnosis—the one in which they told her she’d have two years, max, to live.

Jan had a 50th birthday party recently. It was intimate and decadent and fun. She gathered 14 women; we were all asked to wear red and be prepared to sing our hearts out at karaoke—no exceptions no matter how shy or tone deaf you claimed to be.

Over a dinner of lobster bisque, salmon and red velvet cake, Jan told each one of us why we’d been invited. She thanked us for standing in the gap for her, holding her up, praying for her and with her, making her laugh, sending notes, caring, just being there. Then she recapped the last two years during which she endured surgery, and chemo, and countless doctor visits to be prodded, poked and monitored. But that’s not what she talked about—at all.

Instead, Jan talked about how she’d seen her youngest of four children enter high school and her first child graduate from Yale, her own alma mater. That daughter took a job teaching English in Korea and Jan went with her second daughter to visit; they had a ball. Jan was honored several times for her dedicated work with Yale, with her church, and in her community. Shortly before her birthday party, she and her husband celebrated their 25th anniversary on a trip to the beautiful island of Anguilla. She’s looking forward to Christmas and to all that’s coming in 2012.

Summing up, Jan said, “I don’t know what the 50s hold, but my 40s were great. In the last few years, I’ve had the time of my life.”

Here’s the thing about the world we live in now: It’s one of extremes. Extreme weather; extreme sports; extreme religion; extreme wealth; extreme poverty; extreme politics; extreme TV. You name it; we’ve taken it to the extremes.

What Jan seems to have found in the midst of being diagnosed with a terminal illness, an extreme situation to be sure, is that thing that eludes so many of us, individually and collectively: Balance. And in the midst of that balance, she’s found joy, love, and peace.

Every year when my kids ask me what I want for Christmas, I say, “Happiness, love and peace on Earth.” They scowl and give each other the she’s-crazy look. They hate that answer.

“Mom,” my son says, as if he’s patiently trying to reason with a lunatic, “We need you to tell us something that we can actually give you. Think box, something that comes in a box.”

Thing is, I don’t really need anything that comes in a box. I need balance, more within myself, within my family and throughout our world. I need us all to pull back from the extremes and get centered around what really matters so we can fix a few things and be proud of ourselves and the world we’re creating.

I hope your Christmas overflows with all good things and that you get what you really wish for, boxed or not. If you have a key to achieving greater balance, please reach back and let me know since that really is my Christmas wish.

Nicknamed “The Jet,” the 32-year-old sprinter lays claim to the title of the “Fastest Woman Alive” and is favored to win the gold medal in the 100m race.

In 2009 she was ranked the second fastest woman in history running the 100m race in just 10.64 seconds at the IAAF/VTB Bank World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki, Greece and this year USA Track & Field (USATF) honored Jeter with the Jesse Owens Award for Athlete of the Year. BE Next spoke to Jeter recently about her career which shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Click here to read the full interview with track star Carmelita Jeter at BlackEnterprise.com/BENext