That ™s one conclusion from a study of 76 male and female students at a Midwest university.

In addition, blacks tended to desire the body size they considered healthy while whites wanted a body size smaller than they thought healthy, says Mara S. Aruguete, professor of psychology at Stephens College, a women ™s college, in Columbia, MO.

This might indicate that health-focused treatments could be relatively ineffective for white patients with eating disorders, she notes.

Aruguete and co-researchers Lynette Nickelberry of Stephens College and Alayne Yates of the University of Hawaii, asked 76 male and female students at an historically black Midwest university to complete questionnaires on demographics, eating attitudes, body shapes, how they viewed their own bodies, and adherence to black cultural norms. Two-thirds of the students surveyed were black and the remainder white.

Their results are published in the autumn 2004 issue of the North American Journal of Psychology.

They also found that black men and women were less likely to diet than were white women. But that didn ™t mean that blacks were immune from eating disorders.

One of the hypotheses of the study had been that there would be a negative relationship between adherence to black cultural norms and eating disorders. This, however, was not the case.

Surprisingly we found that black men showed a propensity toward bulimia similar to white women, with both groups having higher scores on that scale than white men or black women, says Aruguete.

Although only six participants scored in the pathological range for eating disorders, two were black men and four were white women.

There is some other research, she says, that shows that black adolescent males are more likely than white teen males to report eating disorders accurately.

What is prostate cancer? Except for skin cancer, cancer of the prostate is the most common malignancy in American men. It is estimated that nearly 221,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003. In most men with prostate cancer, the disease grows very slowly. The majority of men with low-grade, early prostate cancer (confined to the gland) live a long time after their diagnosis. Even without treatment, many of these men will not die of the prostate cancer, but rather will live with it until they eventually die of some other, unrelated cause. Nevertheless, nearly 29,000 men will die of prostate cancer in 2003.

Who is at risk for prostate cancer? All men are at risk. The most common risk factor is age. More than 70 percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer each year are over the age of 65. African American men have a higher risk of prostate cancer than white men. Dramatic differences in the incidence of prostate cancer are also seen in different countries, and there is some evidence that a diet higher in fat, especially animal fat, may account for some of these differences. Genetic factors also appear to play a role, particularly for families in whom the diagnosis is made in men under 60 years of age. The risk of prostate cancer rises with the number of close relatives who have the disease.

What are the symptoms of prostate cancer? Prostate cancer often does not cause symptoms for many years. By the time symptoms occur, the disease may have spread beyond the prostate. When symptoms do occur, they may include:

Frequent urination, especially at night Inability to urinate Trouble starting or holding back urination A weak or interrupted flow of urine Painful or burning urination Blood in the urine or semen Painful ejaculation Frequent pain in the lower back, hips, or upper thighs

These can be symptoms of cancer, but more often they are symptoms of noncancerous conditions. It is important to check with a doctor.