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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Proved Ways to Stay Healthy

How can your doctor admonition accumulate you healthy?

It's not an simple catechism to answer, but the Affiliation for Prevention, a affiliation of added than 50 accessible and clandestine bloom organizations, has advised the affair for several years. The National Commission on Prevention Priorities, chaired by above U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, was convened by the affiliation to admonition adviser the report.

After belief bags of medical studies, they accept appear up with a baronial of 25 analytic casework that not alone to admonition humans break healthy, they aswell are almost affordable.

Just because some casework ranked somewhat low, such as diet counseling, doesn't beggarly they aren't useful, said Ashley Coffield, a chief analyst and co-author of the study.

It apparently agency there has not been abundant analysis on the affair or that humans are absurd to accept to their doctors' advice, she said.

"Obesity screening ... is not as simple as accepting a flu vaccine or demography a pill. It's about what it's traveling to yield to change diet and concrete action habits," Coffield said.

Here are the top 10 casework and why they are so helpful. For the abounding rankings, bang here: http://www.prevent.org/nccp

Bloom affliction providers should altercate demography a circadian asprin with men earlier than 40 and women earlier than 50, and with any others at accident for affection disease. Very few adults yield aspirin consistently, even admitting aspirin analysis is effective, affordable and almost low risk.

Children should be immunized adjoin vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunization protects adjoin austere diseases for a lifetime.

Bloom affliction providers should awning adults for smoker and accommodate abrupt counseling. If this account were offered to all smokers, it could save $3 billion in medical affliction costs annually.

Adults earlier than 50 should be buried for colorectal cancer. Alone about one-third of U.S. adults are screened, and bumping that amount up to 100 percent could save about 19,000 lives every year.

Adults should accept their claret burden abstinent and those with top claret burden should accept it treated. Top claret burden and its complications aftereffect in added than $100 billion in anniversary medical costs

Adults older than 50 should receive an annual flu shot, and adults older than 65 should receive a pneumonia vaccine (needed about every 10 years). These two infectious diseases sicken and kill thousands of older adults each year.

Doctors should ask patients about their alcohol use, and provide counseling if needed. People who drink excessively will often start drinking less if their doctors point it out.

Adults older than 65 should have their vision screened, because about 25 percent of them wear the wrong corrective prescription. This helps prevent falls.

Women should receive regular Pap smears, since the test screens for cervical cancer, which is highly curable if treated early.

Men older than 35 and women older than 45 should have their cholesterol screened and treated if it's abnormally high. One of out four adults who don't control their high cholesterol will have a cholesterol-attributable heart attack.


Monday, November 15, 2010

Weight Gain and Smoking - Quit

Most people who quit smoking worry about gaining weight. It seems to go with the territory. While a small gain is normal, excessive weight gain when you quit smoking can create new health problems and erode your determination to stay off cigarettes. Learn what you can do to keep your weight under control as you go through the process of recovery from nicotine addictio

  • · moking burns up to 200 calories a day in a heavy smoker
  • · Because smoking burns calories, metabolism is boosted (increased) slightly
  • · Nicotine is an appetite suppressant

When you quit smoking, a gain of between 5 and 10 pounds during the first few months of cessation is normal. If your eating habits have remained the same as they were when you smoked, you can easily shed this small gain with a brisk, 30 minute walk daily.

Why do I want to eat more?
Smoking cessation throws our bodies into shock initially. Increased appetite is a side effect of quitting tobacco for most people. One or more of the following reasons may be at play:

· Cigarettes as an appetite suppressant
Smokers often avoid between meal snacking by lighting up. Nicotine is a stimulant, and may also interfere with the release of the hormone insulin. Insulin controls glucose levels in the blood. When this function is blocked, a person will become slightly hyperglycemic, and as a result, the body and brain may slow down the hormones and other signals that trigger feelings of hunger.

· Food as a replacement for smoking
Early on in a person's quit, the urge to smoke is frequent and uncomfortable. It's natural to look for something to ease the discomfort, and food is often used as a replacement. Not only does it fill the void left by the cigarette, food can be an emotional comfort, easing the pain of withdrawal.

Studies have shown that women are at greater risk than men for returning to smoking as a way to avoid weight gain. Understanding what happens to our bodies when we quit smoking, and what we can do to alleviate discomforts in constructive ways that do not involve weight gain will help you stay on track.

What can I do to avoid gaining weight when I quit smoking?
There are a number of choices you can make to minimize weight gain:

Exercise
Because quitting smoking slows the metabolism, getting some form of daily exercise is very important. To combat excess weight, shoot for at least a half hour of exercise, 5 days a week. It doesn't have to be a high intensity aerobic workout - a brisk 30 minute walk around your neighborhood will work wonders. Exercise is also a great way to beat cravings to smoke. If you're having a bad day, get out for a walk. It'll clear your mind and improve your attitude.

Healthy Snacks
Put snacks together ahead of time so that when the munchies hit, you've got good food choices within easy reach:

  • · vegetable sticks - celery, carrot
  • · 94% fat free popcorn
  • · sunflower seeds in the shell
  • · Water - drink lots of it!
  • · hard candies to suck on
  • · fresh fruit
  • · fat free yogurt
  • · herbal teas
  • · hot cocoa made with nonfat milk
  • · frozen grapes
  • · fat free fudgecicles

If you're concerned about weight gain, do yourself a favor and remove tempting, high fat foods from your home. Don't have a chocolate cake on the counter begging you to cut a slice. If you have an intense craving for a hot fudge sundae, it's better to go out and have one at a restaurant than it is to keep all of the ingredients to make it on hand in the house.

Avoid Alcohol
Not only is alcohol high in calories, it can be a huge trigger to smoke. For many people, smoking and drinking go together like a hand in a glove. Avoid the empty calories in alcohol, but more importantly, don't put yourself at risk of relapse by drinking early in your quit.

One Challenge at a Time
People who quit smoking often decide it's time to clean their lives up in other areas as well. That's great, but be careful. If you try to do too many self-improvement projects at once, you run the risk of failing at all of them.

Keep these points in mind:

· Be good to yourself. Quitting tobacco is a huge accomplishment, and you should reward yourself for your progress often. Don't underestimate the magnitude of what you are doing.

· Be patient. Quitting smoking is a process over time. It doesn't happen overnight, but in comparison to the number of years most of us smoked, recovery from this addiction is short. Give yourself the time you need to heal.

· Accept yourself. You are a wonderful person just as you are right now.

If you gain a few pounds while going through the process of quitting tobacco, so be it. The benefits will affect your life as well as those who love you in more ways than you can imagine. You can quit smoking without gaining a lot of weight. Don't let the fear of weight gain keep you chained to an addiction that will kill you, given the chance.