Good Health Tips For Your Family
1. Go to the doctor or health professional every year for acheck-up.• Write down your questions before you go. Or, have someone elsewrite them down as you say them.• Tell your doctor about any health problems you have.• Tell the doctor what medicines you take.• Tell the doctor if you take supplements like vitamins and mineralsor if you take herbal products.• Ask questions. Make sure you understand what the doctor tellsyou.• Take a trusted friend or family member with you if you need to.
2.Find out how to stay healthy and safe.• Practice good health habits like washing hands before eating orpreparing food.• Cook foods long enough and to the proper temperature.• Stop unhealthy habits like smoking and chewing tobacco. Peoplearound you can get sick from the smoke too.• Use safety items to protect children. These include car seats,electrical plug covers, and gates in front of stairs.• Brush teeth at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and flossevery day.• See your dentist for regular check-ups.
3. Make a list of immunizations (shots), sicknesses andsurgeries. Do this for you and others in your family.• Take the list when you go to your doctor or health professional.• Ask what tests or shots you and your family need.
4. Read together.• Reading is fun and good for you.• You and your children can learn more about good health.5. Prepare/Fix healthy foods for you and your family.• Eat whole-grain breads and cereals (whole wheat, oatmeal).• Eat
5 to 9 servings of vegetables and fruits every day.• Eat or drink plenty of foods with calcium, like milk, cheese, oryogurt.• Limit foods with high fat and cholesterol.• Limit foods with a lot of sugar or salt.• Eat more healthy snacks like fruit. Eat less junk food like chips.
6. Get to a healthy weight and stay there.• You can do this by watching what you eat and how much you eat.• Get some exercise every day.• Going for a fast walk for 30 minutes is a good start. Do this mostdays of the week.Exercise helps you feel better and helps to keep you from gettingheart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
7. Talk with your children about risky behaviors.• You can protect yourself from most sexually transmitted diseases(STDs) by not having sex (oral, anal or vaginal).• Using drugs and alcohol increases the chance of risky sexualbehaviors.• If you do have sex, use condoms. Unprotected sex can lead toHIV, other STDs (sexually transmitted disease), and unwantedpregnancies.• Using dirty needles (for drugs, tattoos, body piercing) can causeHIV and hepatitis.• Set a good example for children by modeling healthy behavior.• Telling children the facts about risky behaviors can help them dealwith “peer pressure”.• Learn to be a good listener.
8. What to do before you become pregnant:• Get a check-up with your doctor. Medical conditions likediabetes, high blood pressure, and epilepsy need to be undercontrol before you get pregnant.• Eat healthy foods. Take a multi-vitamin with folic acid.• If you smoke or drink, quit.• Get prenatal care as soon as you think you are pregnant.
9. If you use well water for drinking, have it tested to besure it’s safe. Call your county health department tofind out about testing.
10. Keep from getting mosquito bites.• Cover your body with clothing as much as possible.• Use mosquito repellent with DEET.• Don’t go outside after the sun sets and before the sun rises unlessyou cover up or use repellent.• Empty everything in your yard that has standing water.
11. Your mental health is important, too.• If you are feeling “down” more than you think you should be, youmay have depression.• Your doctor or health professional can help with depression andother mental health conditions. Ask for help.
12. Find out where to get help when you need it.• Your doctor or health professional• Your county health department• Community mental health centers• Schools and libraries• Faith organizations• Look in the phone book or on the Internet
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Good Health Tips for Men
Good Health Tips for Men
The Top 12
1) Don't smoke. Smoking is estimated to kill 400,000 Americans every single year. That's the equivalent death toll of three jumbo jet crashes every single day! Choosing not to smoke is, without a doubt, the single most important health decision you can make.
2) Control your weight. This is not as easy a No. 2 choice for me as was No. 1. That's because the connection between obesity and actual illnesses or deaths is often more indirect than is the case with smoking. But I have come to accept the estimates of the Surgeon General's Office that obesity is responsible for approximately 350,000 deaths every year, and that if American men continue to stop smoking in large numbers, it may even replace smoking as the No. 1 cause of death for men.
3) Drink alcohol in moderation. This message can be taken in both positive and negative terms. Truly moderate drinking (one to two standard size drinks per day) does reduce the risk of coronary artery disease, the No. 1 cause of death in our country. However, excessive drinking is a major cause of both physical disease and social tragedy. Approximately 10 percent of people who start drinking socially will become alcoholics. The decision to drink even socially should not be taken lightly.
4) Exercise regularly. This health practice has enormous physical and emotional benefits. Besides reducing the risk for high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis, regular exercise can be helpful in raising our general mood and reducing the risk for depression.
5) Have regular cholesterol and blood pressure tests. Both high cholesterol and high blood pressure can be described as "silent killers," since they can cause extensive damage to our heart and arteries without producing any telltale symptoms until it is often too late. Therefore, the only way to find out if you have a potential problem is to get tested.
6) Have regular colonoscopy and prostate serum antigen testing. I strongly believe in the value of both of these tests in detecting two common and potentially lethal diseases — colon and prostate cancer — when they are still curable. There are not many cancers that we can either prevent of detect early enough to make a difference, but these are two.
7) Take a baby aspirin every day (for most men). Unless you are truly allergic to aspirin (very rare) or at high risk for gastrointestinal bleeding (not very common), this daily dose of aspirin is one of the most beneficial and simple things you can do. It acts to reduce the risk of clot formation in the arteries leading to your heart and brain, thereby reducing the risk of both heart attacks and strokes. And it probably acts in many other beneficial ways we don't yet fully understand.
8) Practice safe sex. In this age of AIDS, you could make a good case for putting this higher on the list. But even less lethal sexually transmitted diseases can cause a wide range of disability, such as infertility problems and pelvic pain in women. And unless you are in a truly monogamous relationship, there is no good way to tell a partner is safe, so prevention using condoms is key.
9) Have regular glaucoma screenings. I put this on the list because glaucoma is a major cause of blindness and it usually doesn't produce visual symptoms until it has caused significant damage to the optic nerve. That's why eye doctors call it a "thief in the night." The other benefit of glaucoma screening is that your ophthalmologist will have the opportunity to check for other eye problems such as macular degeneration.
10) Use a sunscreen of at least 15 SPF. Skin cancers are the most common of all cancers by far. Fortunately, most of them (basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas) are rarely lethal, though they can certainly cause local disfigurement if not diagnosed early. Melanoma is both disfiguring and lethal, so it must be diagnosed as early as possible. But since it is so inconvenient to do a truly thorough check of the skin, at least by yourself, prevention is a very helpful tool. And that means the use of sunscreen and protective clothing and the avoidance of direct sun exposure between the "high hours" of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when the sun is strongest.
11) Increase good fats and good carbs in your diet. Some of the standard nutritional advice of the past is undergoing change. And this is particularly true in the growing emphasis on making a distinction between good fats and carbs — such as omega-3 fatty acids and whole grains, which should actually be increased in our diet — and bad fats and carbs, such as saturated fats and highly refined grains, which of course should be decreased. In other words, just "cutting down" on fats and carbs is not precise enough anymore.
12) Find time for some kind of meditation/relaxation practice. This goal is very flexible. It is more important to set aside some time for relaxation than it is to worry about a specific relaxation technique. Even physical activity that is "relaxing" in the sense that it gets your mind away from stressful thoughts can be helpful. All of us should take the time to "get away" mentally and emotionally at least once a day, wherever we are, or whatever we are doing.
The Top 12
1) Don't smoke. Smoking is estimated to kill 400,000 Americans every single year. That's the equivalent death toll of three jumbo jet crashes every single day! Choosing not to smoke is, without a doubt, the single most important health decision you can make.
2) Control your weight. This is not as easy a No. 2 choice for me as was No. 1. That's because the connection between obesity and actual illnesses or deaths is often more indirect than is the case with smoking. But I have come to accept the estimates of the Surgeon General's Office that obesity is responsible for approximately 350,000 deaths every year, and that if American men continue to stop smoking in large numbers, it may even replace smoking as the No. 1 cause of death for men.
3) Drink alcohol in moderation. This message can be taken in both positive and negative terms. Truly moderate drinking (one to two standard size drinks per day) does reduce the risk of coronary artery disease, the No. 1 cause of death in our country. However, excessive drinking is a major cause of both physical disease and social tragedy. Approximately 10 percent of people who start drinking socially will become alcoholics. The decision to drink even socially should not be taken lightly.
4) Exercise regularly. This health practice has enormous physical and emotional benefits. Besides reducing the risk for high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis, regular exercise can be helpful in raising our general mood and reducing the risk for depression.
5) Have regular cholesterol and blood pressure tests. Both high cholesterol and high blood pressure can be described as "silent killers," since they can cause extensive damage to our heart and arteries without producing any telltale symptoms until it is often too late. Therefore, the only way to find out if you have a potential problem is to get tested.
6) Have regular colonoscopy and prostate serum antigen testing. I strongly believe in the value of both of these tests in detecting two common and potentially lethal diseases — colon and prostate cancer — when they are still curable. There are not many cancers that we can either prevent of detect early enough to make a difference, but these are two.
7) Take a baby aspirin every day (for most men). Unless you are truly allergic to aspirin (very rare) or at high risk for gastrointestinal bleeding (not very common), this daily dose of aspirin is one of the most beneficial and simple things you can do. It acts to reduce the risk of clot formation in the arteries leading to your heart and brain, thereby reducing the risk of both heart attacks and strokes. And it probably acts in many other beneficial ways we don't yet fully understand.
8) Practice safe sex. In this age of AIDS, you could make a good case for putting this higher on the list. But even less lethal sexually transmitted diseases can cause a wide range of disability, such as infertility problems and pelvic pain in women. And unless you are in a truly monogamous relationship, there is no good way to tell a partner is safe, so prevention using condoms is key.
9) Have regular glaucoma screenings. I put this on the list because glaucoma is a major cause of blindness and it usually doesn't produce visual symptoms until it has caused significant damage to the optic nerve. That's why eye doctors call it a "thief in the night." The other benefit of glaucoma screening is that your ophthalmologist will have the opportunity to check for other eye problems such as macular degeneration.
10) Use a sunscreen of at least 15 SPF. Skin cancers are the most common of all cancers by far. Fortunately, most of them (basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas) are rarely lethal, though they can certainly cause local disfigurement if not diagnosed early. Melanoma is both disfiguring and lethal, so it must be diagnosed as early as possible. But since it is so inconvenient to do a truly thorough check of the skin, at least by yourself, prevention is a very helpful tool. And that means the use of sunscreen and protective clothing and the avoidance of direct sun exposure between the "high hours" of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when the sun is strongest.
11) Increase good fats and good carbs in your diet. Some of the standard nutritional advice of the past is undergoing change. And this is particularly true in the growing emphasis on making a distinction between good fats and carbs — such as omega-3 fatty acids and whole grains, which should actually be increased in our diet — and bad fats and carbs, such as saturated fats and highly refined grains, which of course should be decreased. In other words, just "cutting down" on fats and carbs is not precise enough anymore.
12) Find time for some kind of meditation/relaxation practice. This goal is very flexible. It is more important to set aside some time for relaxation than it is to worry about a specific relaxation technique. Even physical activity that is "relaxing" in the sense that it gets your mind away from stressful thoughts can be helpful. All of us should take the time to "get away" mentally and emotionally at least once a day, wherever we are, or whatever we are doing.
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