|
American Cancer Society Offers Health Tips For 2008
It's time for that annual self-improvement ritual, making your list of New Year's resolutions. We all say we want to be healthier and take better care of ourselves. Sometimes taking that first step (and staying the course) can be daunting. The American Cancer Society has some manageable tips for healthy eating, becoming more active, quitting smoking and getting regular checkups that can greatly reduce your risk of developing cancer.
Enjoy better health in 2008 by putting these resolutions to live by on your list:
1. If you're a smoker, quit. Do it for yourself, your friends and family, do it for your dog or cat - just do it! There's no one right way to quit, but there are some key tips to quitting smoking successfully: make the decision to quit; set a quit date and choose a quit plan; and learn how to deal with the withdrawal symptoms and create a maintenance program. Our www.cancer.org/livefreesmokefree Web site has quit tips and resources you can use to quit smoking; the winning videos from our Great American Smokeout video contest on YouTube; and ways on how you can help your friends and loved ones quit smoking.
2. Be more active and maintain a healthy weight. For adults, that means engaging in at least moderate activity for 30 minutes or more on five or more days of the week, and for children and adolescents, it means 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity at least five days a week. Take a walk every day, play with your kids, park farther away from the office, walk up the stairs, join a gym and go. It all adds up.
3. If you drink alcoholic beverages, limit consumption. Alcohol increases the risk of several cancers, including mouth, esophageal and liver for men and women and breast cancer in women. Men who drink alcohol should limit their intake to no more than two drinks per day, and women to one drink per day.
4. Eat a variety of healthful foods, with an emphasis on plant sources. Include five or more servings of a variety of vegetables and fruits in your diet each day, choose whole grains rather than processed (refined) grains and sugars and limit your consumption of red meat and processed meat.
5. Talk with your doctor about a regular schedule for cancer screening tests based on your age and personal risk factors. These tests include mammograms and clinical breast exams for breast cancer; fecal occult blood test (FOBT), sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy for colon cancer (that's for both men and women); PSA and DRE tests for prostate cancer; and the Pap test for cervical cancer.
6. Take the Great American Health Check. A great way to get started on a healthier lifestyle resolution is to answer a few easy questions through the Great American Health Check Web site, an easy, confidential, online health assessment tool offered by the American Cancer Society and available at www.cancer.org/greatamericans. Users receive a personalized cancer prevention action plan that lists the cancer screening tests they need to consider, along with healthy lifestyle recommendations. The Great American Health Check is part of the American Cancer Society's Great American Health Challenge that includes the Great American Health Check, Get Active, Eat Right Challenge and Great American Smokeout.
7. Join the American Cancer Society Cancer Action NetworkSM. Work as a grassroots advocate in your community and help our advocacy efforts on behalf of cancer patients, survivors and others who have been touched by this disease. By becoming a member of ACS CAN, you can: help enact public policies to help smokers quit; become a part of our Access To Health Care campaign and advocate for legislation for access to quality and affordable health care for all Americans; watch our ACS CAN Fight Back Express bus tour beginning in May that will help put cancer issues front and center in the 2008 elections; and read information about other advocacy issues. To learn more about becoming an advocate, call 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.acscan.org.
| 
