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North Carolina, put on your walking shoes! Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) is launching the “Million Step March,” a 600-mile statewide wellness initiative to promote the benefits of physical activity. Participants will walk from Asheville to Wilmington and can be tracked on an interactive Web site along the way.

The Million Step March (MSM) will be led by Kathy Higgins, BCBSNC’s vice president of Community Relations, and Gary Marino, a nationally recognized healthy lifestyle advocate. Marino lost more than 150 pounds over three years, largely by traveling on foot from Florida to Boston to raise awareness about obesity. Marino has teamed up with BCBSNC to show that anyone can live a healthier lifestyle by taking simple steps like walking regularly.

The 10-week campaign began in Asheville on April 1 and ends in Wilmington on June 11. The Million Step March team will host dozens of demonstrations and events at schools, community groups, worksites and other locations along the way to inspire people to get moving.

For more information on joining the Million Step March, visit betterhealthNC.com

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Introducing the newly launched, newbie-friendly, World's biggest on line Forum. The new Web site includes health, diet and fitness research forums. Comments and Questions from just about anyone around the world can be posted and found. The world's largest diet and fitness information source is a new place where friends discuss all about the value, effects, and benefits of weight loss and fitness.

Dietnoni.com allows users to:

* Start new topics
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* Edit, move, delete, merge and reply to others
* Post, edit and vote on polls
* Post and download attachments
* View members profiles
* View who's on line
* Private messaging
* Create public events

Users can view boards in the language of their choice including Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish. Automatically detects the correct time zone settings for each user. No manual time zone settings are necessary. Daylight saving times are taken care of too.

For more information, visit dietnoni.com

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Coastal Center for Obesity provided an informative seminar and support group recently for patients that have undergone Bariatric surgery and all those who wanted to learn more about the benefits and challenges of weight loss surgery, as well as the options now available to them. While obesity is a threat among all social classes and populations, Latinos are disproportionately affected by obesity and its complications including diabetes, hypertension, vascular disease, sleep apnea and depression. This support group has been created to help and educate the Hispanic community about this serious problem and was held in Spanish, though English-speaking participants are welcome.

Bariatric Surgery is an increasingly popular weight-loss alternative for morbidly obese people who face serious health risks associated with their weight. Recent data indicates that 50 percent of Americans are overweight and 6-10 million are more then 100 pounds overweight.

For more information, visit coastalobesity.com

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The Johns Hopkins Prostate Bulletin Winter issue 2007-2008 reports on the latest study showing how being overweight can affect your PSA levels, rendering the standard PSA test protocols for diagnosing prostate cancer inaccurate.

The extra blood volume produced in the obese may so dilute levels of a tell-tale protein produced by the prostate gland that the popular PSA test may be SIGNIFICANTLY LESS EFFECTIVE for diagnosing prostate cancer in men carrying extra pounds.

The predictive value of the PSA test depends on accurate readings of a protein, (P)rostate (S)pecific (A)ntigen continually produced by the prostate. When the prostate is enlarged - due to cancer or other disorders - the concentration of PSA in the bloodstream can increase, signaling the possible presence of cancer.

Physicians thus commonly regard increased PSA values as a first marker to diagnose prostate cancer, to be followed by other diagnostic tests such as physical exams and a transrectal ultrasound.

Complicating the diagnosis of prostate cancer further, the researchers note, is the fact that both physical exams and imaging studies of the prostate are more difficult in obese men.

Although recent studies have shown that PSA concentrations can be lower than expected in obese men with prostate cancer, the current research was designed to determine which of two dueling hypotheses explained this, notes Alan Partin, M.D., chief of the Department of Urology at Johns Hopkins' Brady Urological Institute.

One idea was based on the possibility that obese men make less PSA because they tend to have less testosterone, the sex hormone that prompts PSA production.

The other theory attributed the phenomenon to the increased amount of blood volume that obese men produce to support their size, which has the effect of thinning out the concentration of PSA.

For more information, visit johnshopkinshealthalerts.com

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