The girl is tough, that's for sure. Just after being hospitalized for major health issues, singer Amy Winehouse performed at a special birthday concert for Nelson Mandela and then last night, sang for one hour on stage in front of a crowd of 80,000 at the Glastonbury music festival. She even had enough in her to partake in a little altercation with a reveler from the crowd. It's reported that the fan tried to grab Winehouse, and she fought back.

As for Winehouse's health problems, her father says she has emphysema from smoking cigarettes and crack cocaine. Her spokeswomen says she only has pre-emphysema symptoms. Whatever the case, her diagnosis isn't slowing her from performing -- or smoking. Just after her hospital release, she was seen smoking a cigarette.

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After collapsing in her London home last week, singer Amy Winehouse has been resting and undergoing tests in a London hospital. After a short-lived TB scare, doctors finally pinpointed her condition. She's been diagnosed with emphysema, in the very early stages. Emphysema is a lung condition that creates breathlessness and reduces a person's ability to be physically active.

Though there's no cure for emphysema, Winehouse's condition will likely be controlled by a smoking cessation program (smoking the main risk factor for emphysema), lung rehabilitation, and medications. The damage caused by emphysema is irreversible, but Winehouse's publicist insists she's in the earliest stage of the disease.

According to her father, Winehouse is eager to began rebuilding her health and has been following doctor's orders to the letter. Whether she's able to continue touring or not will depend on whether those doctors feel like she's up to the task.

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Bad news for women in the Washington Post yesterday. A study, also published yesterday, reveals evidence that life expectancy is falling for a significant number of American females.

According to the Post, the study cites that in nearly 1,000 counties that together are home to about 12 percent of the nation's women, life expectancy is now shorter than it was in the early 1980s. This marks the first decline in life expectancy for a significant number of women since the Spanish influenza of 1918, the Post reports.

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Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz! My 12-year-old daughter has started getting into fitness, all on her own motivation. She's always been on the thin side, and is certainly a healthy weight...and a fairly healthy eater. She said she wants to work out to build muscle and put on a few pounds (certainly not what you usually hear from girls at that age group). I want to support her, but I also want to be sure she is doing things in a healthy age-appropriate way.

She lives with her dad and we live in different states, which certainly makes matters more complicated. If she lived with me we could figure out ways to exercise together. Her dad and his girlfriend are both overweight with unhealthy habits. Any suggestions on how to get started? And is there anything she shouldn't be doing yet or things I should look out for? Thanks, Judy

Hello Miss Judy. You ask a great question and are smart to be both excited and leery of the situation. A child of 12 eager to pursue true fitness is an absolute gift. It is also a perfect point for that child's parent to stop and evaluate the situation, to make sure it's addressed correctly.

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A woman almost sent me to the hospital last night because of her overuse of perfume. I was walking down an aisle in Target, when I completely lost my breath! She must have poured half the bottle on her, and I swear I didn't respond so strongly when I was gassed in a Paris subway ten years ago. What is up with that?

I literally had to sprint away from the woman to escape suffocation. It was an obnoxious example of odor abuse. I feel like more and more people are abusing their fragrances every day. Now is this such a big deal? Yeah...Kinda!

It's not often that we hear of a former smoker that turns tide and becomes a outspoken critic of smoking, but that is just what Maureen Hamilton did before her death last week.

Right up until the end, Hamilton, who passed away from emphysema complications, wanted the world to see what the smoking of cigarettes can do to a human body. Did she want to be remembered with a glamorous photo from her past?

No -- Hamilton wanted photos of her ravaged body to be on display after she died to give those who smoke a perfect picture of what all that smoking can result in. It's not a pretty picture -- but it is the truth. What are you doing to quit?

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If you're a smoker, you may have heard of Emphysema, a disease that eventually destroys the capabilities of the lungs to facilitate oxygen transfer to the body.

Well, researchers may have a solution for this, oddly enough. A new method of bypassing the airway to ensure the lungs don't experience breathlessness may be showing future promise, according to researchers. Basically, the new "airway bypass" procedure lets the lungs expel air that would normally be trapped.

The bypass re-connects the damaged lung tissue to the natural airway, allowing for easier breathing and hopefully, a lower death rate from those who have Emphysema. The new pathway is kept open by stents, naturally.

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Toss those hot dogs, bacon, and cured meats you're planning to devour -- because they could just take your breath away.

According to an analysis published recently in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, people who munch on these meaty items have an increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD, the umbrella term for emphysema and chronic bronchitis, is the fourth leading cause of death in America and is primarily caused by smoking. Still, diet plays a role and while studies don't conclusively link eating habits with COPD, there does seem to be an association. Specifically, those who ate 14 or more servings of cured meat per month increased their odds of developing this condition by 80 percent.

I don't know about you, but 80 percent seems pretty significant to me. This, along with the fact that cured meats contain large amounts of nitrates -- linked to lung damage in animals -- is enough for me to steer clear of these iffy meats for the rest of time.

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