It's a harsh reality but it's the truth: after a heart attack, African American patients are given sub-standard care compared to their Caucasian counterparts. A study found that African Americans were 30% less likely to receive proper care than white Americans, regardless of the hospital they're treated at.

What's the reason for this? Many believe it's because discrimination, either blatant or subtle. Which I think is especially sad because it shows that no matter how far we've come, we've still got a long way to go in terms of equality for all.

Do you have any personal experience with this sort of injustice?

Tea is especially beneficial in returning stress hormone levels back to normal. Even after stress-inducing activities, men who drank four cups of black tea daily for six weeks in the new study experienced a quicker relief from the damaging stress hormone cortisol. Long-term exposure to cortisol has been linked with the onset of coronary heart disease.

The importance isn't so much that black tea prevents reaction to stress -- because it doesn't turn you into a zombie, after all -- but that it helps greatly in recovery from stress. At the end of the six-week study, the men in the tea-drinking group were asked to complete stressful activities such as preparing and delivering a presentation in only five minutes. These men experienced the same spike in blood pressure and cortisol as the non-tea drinkers -- however, 50 minutes after the exercise the tea drinkers stress hormone levels fell nearly 50 percent, while the non-tea drinkers had only experienced a 27 percent drop in cortisol.

Now that we have told you all the great heart health and weight loss benefit there is to bouncing on a mini-trampoline -- we are here to tell you not all mini-trampolines are alike.

According to JB Berns, the creator of the Urban Rebounding Program, the mini-trampolines found in stores are not build to withstand the demands put on it during the repetitive bouncing exercises of rebounding.

For those who have become bored with workout routines, or suffer from joint and muscle stress that can result from various forms of exercise, rebounding is an easy and fun alternative. Berns offers a mini-trampoline built to last, a stabilizer bar, and exercise videos as part of the Urban Rebounding Program.

A martial arts black belt in karate and fitness expert named one of America's top 10 personal trainers by Fitness magazine, Berns states that rebounding offers a "challenging cardiovascular workout without excess stress on the heart, muscles and joints. that allows the body to work harder, for a longer period of time without absorbing the shock and stress of hard-surface workouts."

To learn more about the As Seen on TV Urban Rebounding Program, visit the company's website online.

There is a direct relationship between the amount of TV people watch and how physically inactive they are, a new study shows. The study monitored low-income residents in Boston, two-thirds of whom were overweight or obese. Participants used pedometers that documented inactivity associated with time spent watching TV. Physical inactivity contributes to weight problems that can lead to heart disease.

On average, participants watched over three-and-a-half hours of TV a day -- which equated to 520 fewer steps walked a day. Some participants watched over 14 hours of TV on weekdays and 19 hours on weekends -- with every hour spent in front of the TV associated with 144 fewer steps walked. Inadequate maintenance of low-income neighborhood parks and the danger of street crime are two big fear factors in keeping the participants -- mainly African-American and Hispanic women -- at home in front of the TV, report Harvard researchers.

Limited dietary choices, such as those found in communities whose neighborhoods have fewer grocery stores, contribute greatly to obesity, hypertension and high blood sugar resulting in premature death from diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Referred to by Chicago researchers as food deserts, residents in these neighborhoods are more likely to consume high amounts of unhealthy over-processed convenience foods.

Researchers believe premature death is directly linked to a lack of grocery stores, and predominant availability of fast food in primarily African American neighborhoods of Chicago.

According to the study, the African American population has a high incidence of diet-related heart disease, which is directly linked to having disadvantaged access to healthier food choices. "I think the good news of this study is that it brings a new call to action for what can be done in these communities," researcher Mari Gallagher said.

Legendary Broadway director Lloyd Richards, known as a pioneering African American director who became one of the most influential people in the U.S. theater, has passed away from heart failure. In 1959, he directed his first Broadway play, A Raisin In the Sun, to which he received a standing ovation on opening night. Richards was director of the Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre and led the summer playwrights' conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut.

"Lloyd Richards is irreplaceable," Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Executive Director Amy Sullivan said in a statement. "His like will not come again. The American theater and all those who had the privilege to work with him are the better for it. I am honored to have been part of Dean Richard's last graduating class at Yale and to have worked with him many summers at the O'Neill. I learned about the art of the theater from Lloyd, and, more importantly, the art of being a human being. Lloyd Richards was a gentle, quiet, patient man; with a will of steel. His determination and his artistry took the O'Neill's National Playwrights Conference to national and international acclaim. We are and will be forever in his debt."

According to a tribute to Richards, who directed the repertory classics of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, Shaw, he primarily saw the stage as a particularly effective way to address the joys, triumphs and sorrows of black life. Richards was 87.

Women exposed to daily disrespect or mistreatment have higher levels of arterial calcium deposits-- an early heart disease warning, reports the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. The on-going heart study followed 181 African-American women, aged 45 to 58 for five years. Chronic discrimination inflicted a higher incidence of calcium build-up in the arteries than occasional discrimination.

The women were asked survey questions to measure the frequency of daily disrespect, from being ignored to being treated with less courtesy than others. For every one point higher on their chronic discrimination score, they were three times more likely to have calcium build-up. Although the study was adjusted for known heart disease risk factors, these women were 2.5 times more likely to have calcium deposits than women who were not discriminated against on a daily basis. The researchers recommend interventions to reduce the stressful emotional blow of subtle daily discrimination to prevent heart disease in African-American women.