On Sunday September 16, 2007, The Colosseum Gym will be hosting the 1st Annual Lift for the Cure: Powerlifting and Bench Press Competition. All proceeds to help benefit the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. This will be an OPEN meet limited to 60 lifters. All weight classes will be honored, including a separate Law Enforcement Division (Top Cop Award). This will be a unsanctioned RAW meet (belts and wraps only). USAPL rules apply.

Guest Judge and exhibition lift by 7-time USPF National Champion and 6-time IPF World Champion, "Captain Kirk" Karwoski.

The $25 application fee/donation includes a unique event t-shirt, food and refreshments and the opportunity to help a great cause. Event categories include Squat/Bench/Deadlift OR Bench only. Weigh in time is 8 am - 9am. Lifting will start at 10 am. Limited to 60 lifters.

Spectators are welcome! The $5 spectator donation to The Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults includes food and refreshments. Children under 6 are free. Shirt sales and vendors will be on the scene.

The event will be held at The Colosseum Gym located at 9195F Red Branch Road, Columbia, Maryland.

More on the Ulman Fund and how it came about.

Last Tuesday night, I watched Greta Van Susteren of Fox News' On The Record as she interviewed Brittany Lietz, Miss Maryland 2006. Greta asked Brittany what her Miss Maryland job entails. Brittany told Greta her full-time job is to represent her platform -- skin cancer.

Brittany didn't choose just any topic for her platform. She chose one that is entirely personal.

Skin cancer has left more than 20 scars on Brittany's body. One, on her back, marks the site where a stage two melanoma was removed when she was just 19 years old. It presented as a mole, a little smaller than a nickel, she says. In all likelihood, the cancer was caused by two years of tanning bed use. Brittany says she probably tanned every day for two years. Her pursuit of bronzed skin began when she was 17 and wanted a tan for her prom. It ended after doctors told her she had cancer.

Pizza just might have the power to fight cancer -- not the pizza loaded with cheese and pepperoni and tons of tempting toppings, the kind that may have your mouth watering at this very moment. But a version of pizza as we know it may fend off heart disease, obesity, and cancer.

The secret is in the crust -- the cooking of the crust, that is.

Think about this:

It seems baking pizza faster and at higher temperatures can release disease-fighting antioxidants. And it's this one small change to pizza preparation that has scientists at the University of Maryland claiming there is such a thing as a healthy pizza.

Scientists baked pizza at 500 degrees for six minutes and were able to increase antioxidant levels 100 percent. They used whole wheat dough, already high in antioxidants, and let it rise overnight before using their hotter, quicker cooking approach.

One researcher says this study is more a lab curiosity than anything else and might not really lead to a healthier pizza -- because it's unlikely pizza joints will change cooking methods to turn out healthier products.

If you are tempted to try this technique, be aware that the toxin acrylamide can be released if the pizza is baked too long. And don't forget to cut way back on those tasty toppers.

Maryland's air has cancer-causing toxins, and they are far higher than the federal government considers safe, according to Environment Maryland -- an environmental group lobbying to make Maryland the 11th state to follow stricter auto emissions standards.

The group, a spin-off of the Maryland Public Interest Group, has released a report revealing the risk of cancer from air toxins was at least 10 times higher than federal standards in each of the state's counties and Baltimore City.

While California is currently setting the bar for higher auto emissions standards, there is no data at this time to compare Maryland's levels with the rest of the country.

A new line of pomegranate-based supplements, called Pomology, will be revealed this weekend at the 2006 Expo Trade Show in Baltimore, Maryland. According to leading nutritionists and fitness experts, "each product contains a premium blend of proven ingredients that consumers can utilize for immediate relief and long-term health benefits." Target shoppers are those seeking a boost in heart health, prostate health, antioxidant health, joint health, and menopause.

Pomegranates, known for anti-inflammatory effects and high levels of antioxidants, have been used medically for thousands of years and have recently been making headlines for their power to knock out all kinds of health problems, including cancer. Pomology was founded in 2005 by a team of nutritionists and athletic performance experts who created formulas that meet varying lifestyle needs. This product line is promoted as one of highest quality and efficacy.

The information detailed above came directly from a press release.

A few days ago, I wrote a post about Richard Morris of www.breadandmoney.com who argued that sensational press releases about miracle products and potions often land in the hands of the media who broadcast them to the public in a this-will-fix-all-your-problems fashion. Morris states that no one product will fix what ails us without the proper balance of a handful of other practices -- like relaxation, stress reduction, and exercise. It's just not likely that Pomology supplements will result in "immediate relief and long-term health benefits." It's just not. Yet that is what we might gather from this press release. And unless we take on a full-scale lifestyle overhaul, what we gather from taking supplements such as these might just be a whole lot of nothing.

Cancer ... it's kind of a big deal. That is the tagline for the Cross Country for Cancer blog. In a benefit to raise awareness and funds for cancer research at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center of Johns Hopkins University and for the American Cancer Society, six international college students are spending 45 days of summer cycling across America. The Cross Country for Cancer cycling team, who began their 4,000 mile journey in San Francisco, California, 13 days ago, plan to finish in Baltimore, Maryland.

Cross Country for Cancer is blogging the daily challenges and adventures of the cycling journey across America where this group of college students -- John Lian of Amherst; Ezra Pierce of Oxford; Jacob Pierce of UC Santa Barbara; Patrick Garfjeld Roberts of Oxford; Max Capener of Oxford; and David Lauterbach of Wheaton -- basically came up with a big idea and without any self-admittedly realistic sense of what is possible, simply agreed to go for it.

The perfect tan. Hours of each day devoted to the sun. Visits to tanning salons on cloudy days. For many sun worshippers, a golden tan is the currency of beauty. Currently Miss Tidewater, aspiring to win the coveted title of Miss Maryland, Brittany Lietz is a young woman who once aspired to having the perfect tan in the belief it would win her more beauty pageants. At only 20 years of age, her perfect tan turned into a diagnosis of skin cancer.

Lietz has been using her celebrity position as a beauty pageant winner as a platform for raising awareness of the dangers associated with too much sun exposure. She is speaking to high school students at their schools and manning booths at health fairs to warn others her age that the cost of a golden glow is too high a price to pay when you put yourself in harm's way. She has a white scar running across the back of her right rib cage, and she has had 20 other moles removed since she was first diagnosed with melanoma. These days, she uses self-tanning sprays to achieve the look of a tan because a tan is still an asset when you compete in beauty pageants. A pump-spray tan is as close as she wants to be to the sun.

"To me, being tan is not worth losing my life over," she said. "I'm going to be pale and that's who I am."

Listening and Learning Together: Building a Bridge of Trust, is the first-ever Summit to assemble cancer advocates with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and other National Institutes of Health (NIH) leaders taking place in Bethesda, Maryland . NCI Director's Consumer Liaison Group (DCLGO) will host this event on the campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where representatives from all segments of the cancer community will convene to give their constituents a strong voice and to help shape future interaction and collaboration between the National Cancer Institute and the community. The event is June 19–20 and will offer a unique opportunity for interaction and candid conversation with each other and with NCI and NIH leaders.

Registration and check in is at 8:00am at the Natcher Building Foyer. A tour of the campus will take place from 8:30am to Noon and the official opening ceremony will begin at 1:00pm in the Main Auditorium on the lower level of the Natcher Conference Center. For more information on the summit contact Mr. James Hadley the Advocacy Program Manager at the National Cancer Institute Office of Liaison Activities.