Preventive Health Measures

Preventive Health Measures encompass a variety of interventions that can be

undertaken to prevent or delay the occurrence of disease or reduce further
transmission or exposure to disease. Preventive health measures are an
important part of health promotion efforts and many have been recognized as
a cost-effective way to identify and treat potential health problems before
they develop or worsen. These measures may focus on community assessment,
planning and coordination; education and brief counseling; and preventive
screenings as well as strategies involving policy, advocacy and system
changes.

Simple practices for a better life

1. Move more.

Regardless of your age, your brain and body expect and require movement for health.
Movement exerts its effects on the brain through several mechanisms, including
neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons), mood enhancement, and endorphin release.
Do some form of exercise that significantly raises your heart rate for 30 minutes at least
four times a week. Remember also to break up your sitting and move frequently during
the day.

2. Get more sleep.

Sleep is often the single most undervalued behavior in our lives, and the one with the
most immediate power to improve our experience in every waking moment. If youre
getting six or fewer hours of sleep each night, aim to get just one more hour of sleep on
average it will leave you feeling more physically energized, emotionally resilient, and
mentally clear.

3. Eat less, more often.

Food is fuel, and real food lean proteins and vegetables/fruits (complex carbohydrates)
are high-octane fuel. Youre best off when you eat in small doses throughout the day,
beginning with breakfast.

4. Remove interference.

Chiropractic care can literally change your life, and enable you to live a pain-free life full
of energy and vitality. Thats because chiropractic helps reduce or eliminate pressure on
your nerves the same ones that are responsible for your everyday bodily functions.
Chiropractic will help eliminate pain and inflammation, reduce fatigue, and restore
normal nerve flow to all your organs giving you the energy, drive, and peace of mind
to go out there and live life the way it was meant to be lived.
5. Renew more.

Human beings are not designed to work continuously. Were meant instead to alter
between moving (spending energy) and resting (renewing energy). Ideally, take a break
every 90 minutes, even if only to spend a minute or two stretching or breathing deeply.
It all matters, and it all adds up.

6. Be present.

The greatest gift you can give someone is your undivided attention. After all, its better
to be fully present with someone for an hour than physically present, but distracted, for
multiple hours. Shut off your phone at a certain time each day, and practice being
present with your family and friends.

7. Give thanks.

Were far quicker to notice whats wrong in our lives than we are whats right. To help
change this mindset, once a week aim to write a note of appreciation to someone who
deserves it, telling the person precisely what youre grateful for.

8. Do the most important thing first.

Early in the morning (after your coffee), youre likely to have the most energy, and the
fewest distractions. Start your workday by focusing without interruption on the most
important or difficult task you can accomplish that day.

9. Keep learning.

Our brains work better if we challenge them, and life becomes more interesting when we
do. Reading books is a simple and surefire way to learn and grow, but so is building a
daily practice around learning a new language, a sport, an instrument, or around how to
fix a car, or draw.

10. Give back.

Lending a helping hand not only aids others in need, its also very rewarding. Throughout
the year, aim to take some time to add value to the world at large by supporting
charities, standing up for great causes, or giving back to your community.

Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system.

The benefits of exercise are more than just for weight management. Exercise also
combats stress, promotes better sleep and activates the immune system.
 Touch stimulates the release of endorphins (the body's natural pain killers). There
are approximately 5 million touch receptors in our skin3,000 in each finger tip.

Research has shown that when people exercise by walking, they walk 30% longer if
they walk to music.

Drinking water before and after a spa treatment, reduces soreness and helps to
flush the body of toxins released from the muscles.

A top-20 list of preventive health measures

And many of us ignore them, study reports

By Frank Greve

What preventive health measures would save the most lives for the least
money?

The top rank goes to taking aspirin daily to prevent heart attacks and strokes
in men over 40 and women over 50, according to a study reported Wednesday
on the Web site of an alliance of health insurers, state health departments,
academics, and trade groups.

Immunizing children and discouraging people from smoking follow closely

behind, the Washington-based Partnership for Prevention found. Former
Surgeon General David Satcher led the effort, which entailed a review of more
than 8,000 preventive-medicine studies. The rankings are intended as a
checklist for patients, doctors and insurers.

Below are the top 20 preventive measures in rank order. Preventive measures
that are ignored by more than half of those who'd benefit from them are
indicated by asterisks.

*Daily aspirin to prevent heart attacks and stroke in men over 40 and women
over 50.

Childhood immunizations for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles,

mumps, rubella, polio, hepatitis B, etc.

*Tobacco-use screening and brief counseling by doctors.

*Routine colorectal-cancer screening for adults 50 and older by any recognized

method.
Hypertension screening via routine blood-pressure tests and medication if
necessary.

Annual flu shots for adults 50 and older.

*Immunization of adults 65 and older against bacteria that cause pneumonia

and related diseases.

*Screening and brief counseling of problem drinkers by their physicians.

*Vision screening for adults 65 and older.

Cervical cancer screening for sexually active women and women over 21.

Cholesterol screening for men 35 and older and women 45 and older.

Routine breast-cancer screening for women 50 and older and discussion with
women ages 40 to 49 to set an age to begin screening.

*Routine chlamydia screening for sexually active women under 25.

Calcium-supplement counseling for adolescent girls and women.

Vision screening for children under 5.

Routine counsel for women of childbearing age on the use of folic acid
supplements to prevent birth defects.

Obesity screening for adults and high-intensity diet and exercise counseling
for the obese.

Depression screening for adults.

Hearing-impairment screening for adults 65 and over.

Promotion of child-safety measures such as car seats, pool fences, bicycle

helmets, poison control, and curbs on scalding-water burns.

''Next time you're at the doctor, you can use this list to start a conversation
about preventive health actions," said the study's co-author, Ashley Coffield,
the senior analyst for the group.

Analysts quantified the health gains in terms of longer life and better quality
of life for each preventive measure. They also compared the cost-effectiveness
of each preventive intervention. Finally, they combined the two rankings into
one score that measures bang-for-the-buck for the top preventive-care
options.
Of the 10 preventive measures that promise the greatest gains, six are
ignored by more than half of Americans who'd benefit from them, according to
the study, which also appears in the July issue of the American Journal of
Preventive Medicine.

To read the study, which ranks 25 preventive measures, and to learn more
about prevention-based strategies to improve US health, go
to www.prevent.org/content/view/46/96/.

Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

Health Facts and Trivia

Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a
toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
 You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.

All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them
in public.

The average human body has 14 to 18 square feet of skin.

The skin of the armpits can harbor up to 516,000 bacteria per square inch, while
drier areas, such as the forearm, have only about 13,000 bacteria per square
inch.

A bird's eye takes up about 50 percent of its head; our eyes take up about 5
percent of our head. To be comparable to a bird's eyes, the eyes of a human being
would have to be the size of baseballs.

A boys voice breaks during puberty because his vocal cords are lengthening. Up
until that point, girls and boys vocal cords are the same length.

The strongest bone in the body, the thigh bone, is hollow. Ounce for ounce, it has a
greater pressure tolerance and bearing strength than a rod of equivalent size in
cast steel.

Most people lose half of their taste buds by sixty years of age.

The average human body holds enough: sulfur to kill all the fleas on an average
dog, potassium to fire a toy cannon, carbon to make 900 pencils, fat to make 7
bars of soap, 10 gallons of water, and phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads.

The temporal lobe is the area of the brain that allows humans to hear and
understand people speaking.

The average human eyelash lives about 150 days.

The average human has about 10,000 taste buds however, they're not all on the
tongue. Some are under the tongue; some are on the inside of the cheeks; some
are on the roof of the mouth. Some can even be found on the lips these are
especially sensitive to salt.

The thumbnail grows the slowest; the middle nail grows the fastest.

The average human scalp contains between 120,000 and 150,000 hairs.

It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.
 Like a finger print, every person has a unique tongue print.

The air released from a sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph.

The longest word is English language is

pneumonoultramiscroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis - an inflammatory lung disease
caused by the inhalation of fine silica dust.