To Perm or Not to Perm: Affects of Hair Chemicals on Young Black Girls

by: continuum wellness - July 17th, 2011   Filed under: African American, wellness Add Comment

Self acceptance is a beautiful thing.  In actuality it is easier said than done.  Are buttons are oh, so pushed, in one way or the other.  There are often associated risks with manipulating our given beauty to fit the idea of someone else.  When it comes to surgical procedures for example a certain percentage may not pull through.  Why take an unnecessary risk? But when we want something, damn the risk…right?

It is not news that many Black women, with beautiful, thick, curly, nappy hair often agonize over their hair. It is all about making the decision how one will care for it.  Should it be straightened with heat or with chemicals (perms) or worn in a healthier, natural style? Long live nappy hair, yea!  Well, for Moms who want to take the chemical  route for their young daughters, it may have health implications, resulting in earlier menstruation.
The chemicals in the products may affect a young growing girl’s hormones. With the overwhelming use of chemicals in our society, perhaps this is one to leave behind. Read on for the article abstract.

Childhood Hair Product Use and Earlier Age at Menarche in a Racially Diverse Study Population: A Pilot Study

Purpose

Previous studies suggest that hair products containing endocrine disrupting chemicals could alter puberty. We evaluated the association between childhood hair product use and age at menarche in a racially diverse study population.

Methods

We recruited 300 African-American, African-Caribbean, Hispanic, and white women from the New York City metropolitan area who were between 18–77 years of age. Data were collected retrospectively on hair oil, lotion, leave-in conditioner, perm, and other types of hair products used before age 13. Recalled age at menarche ranged from 8 to 19 years. We used multivariable binomial regression to evaluate the association between hair product use and age at menarche (<12 vs. ?12), adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

African-Americans were more likely to use hair products and reached menarche earlier than other racial/ethnic groups. Women reporting childhood hair oil use had a risk ratio of 1.4 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1–1.9) for earlier menarche, adjusting for race/ethnicity and year of birth. Hair perm users had an increased risk for earlier menarche (adjusted risk ratio = 1.4, 95% CI: 1.1–1.8). Other types of hair products assessed in this study were not associated with earlier menarche.

Conclusions

Childhood hair oil and perm use were associated with earlier menarche. If replicated, these results suggest that hair product use may be important to measure in evaluating earlier age at menarche.

Source: Annals of Epidemiology, volume 21, issue 6

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Down South: Blacks Have Increased Risk of Strokes

by: continuum wellness - March 1st, 2010   Filed under: African American, Health, health care, health disparity, heart, heart attack, minorities, stroke Add Comment

UAB Study Shows African-Americans Have Highest Stroke Rate, Southerners More Likely to Die

February 26, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – African-Americans age 65 and younger are more than twice as likely to have a stroke compared with Caucasians in any region, and people who have a stroke are more likely to die in the South than elsewhere, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health.

The findings are from UAB’s Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, one of the largest ongoing health studies that includes more than 30,200 U.S. participants.

This new report is among the first to show major regional and racial disparities in stroke rates. It also underscores the need for targeted stroke-prevention and care strategies in those at greatest risk, said Virginia Howard, Ph.D., a UAB associate professor of epidemiology and a REGARDS co-principal investigator.

The study was presented Feb. 26 at the International Stroke Conference in San Antonio.

“This is the first study to take national data and really lay it out on the table,” Howard said. “We found in the 45-54 age group that blacks have a 2.5-fold greater stroke rate compared to whites, which is startling.”

The study also shows a stroke rate greater than 12 percent higher in eight Southeast states known as the Stroke Belt – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina and Tennessee – with the highest stroke rate in the coastal states of Georgia, North and South Carolina.

“These are stroke-incidence data. It doesn’t tell us how to fix the problem, but it gives us our clearest stroke picture to date in this country,” Howard said.

In the new study, REGARDS researchers reviewed data on more than 26,500 participants with no history of stroke. They kept in periodic telephone contact with the participants for nearly five years and documented 299 strokes to which they applied a rate formula. In the 45-54 age group, the stroke rate is 192 percent for African-Americans compared with 74 percent for whites.

“That disparity in the incidence rate evens out and changes as you monitor stroke in older Americans. In fact the racial differences reverse, so by the time they reach about age 80 and older, whites have a higher stroke rate compared with blacks,” Howard said. It is not clear why the differences change with age, but it may have to do with different types of strokes occurring in different age groups.

The bottom line is that certain subgroups are at greater risk and need to pay closer attention to their stroke-risk factors, said George Howard, Dr.PH., a UAB professor of biostatistics and a REGARDS co-principal investigator. Stroke-risk factors include family history, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, tobacco use and other variables.

The new study was collaboration between UAB, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Vermont in Burlington, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Funding for this study comes from NINDS.

About the UAB School of Public Health

The UAB School of Public Health is a community of scholars and professionals working and teaching in varied arenas of public health with the goal of fostering research and best practices crucial to the health of our nation and its peoples. The school offers more than 20 areas of study and manages dozens of research and community-service centers.

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