Longevity and Disease Prevention

How old you are has an effect on your health risk factors but so does your weight. You cannot make yourself any younger but you can, and should, do something about your weight to reduce your risk factors. Colon cancer screening begins for most adults at the age of 50 when their doctor does a rectal smear and orders a colonoscopy. In spite of the screenings becoming routine colon cancer is showing up in increasingly younger men due, at least in part, to the rise in obesity. Two years ago a study showed that obesity or being overweight was linked to an increase in six different types of cancer including colon cancer. A month later another study showed that prostate cancer was twice as likely in overweight men than in healthy weight men. The solution is to maintain a healthy weight.

Heart disease and being overweight are strongly linked. Being out of shape and overweight (not necessarily the same thing) are even worse. High blood pressure can often be resolved by exercise and diet changes. If weight loss is the effect of these changes, all the better. Excessive levels of cholesterol, a strong risk factor for clogged arteries leading to a stroke or heart atatck, can be lessened by regular exercise. Lessen your calorie intake, get out there and walk, bike, swim or skate. Like the commercial says, "Just do it," for yourself.

An excess of fat in women means there will be an excess of the hormone estrogen in the blood stream. The fatty tissue produces the estrogen, so more fat equals more estrogen. Estrogen feeds many reproductive system cancers as well as many types of breast cancer. This makes it simple to reduce your risk for these cancers, drop the excess weight. You know what you need to do. Get moving, exercise and watch your calorie intake.

Smoking, where should I begin? Tobacco use has been blamed for so many health problems that to repeat them seems redundant but there are a few more things that you should be made aware of. Smoking raises your risk for arterial and heart disease, lung disease, kidney cancer, lung cancer, oral and throat cancer as well as generalized aging of all of the bodies systems. If you smoke, make every effort to stop. If you fail at quitting, know that failure only occurs when you stop trying, so keep at it. Relearn your habits and find a way to quit. Talk to your doctor, there are aids that work, use them. Keep trying as though your life depended on it, because it does.

Recent studies have shown that adults under 45 years of age have an increased risk for throat and mouth cancer. This is attributed in large part in both men and women to the Human Papilloma Virus. The HPV vaccine may be able to prevent these some of this type of cancer in the future.

Find your flavor in herbs and spices. Excess salt and sugar intake are responsible for more than their share of health problems. For both of these white powders, less is more.

Look for flavor in herbs and spices, not in salt and sugar and get moving. Your body will thank you and diabetes, or the syndrome known as diabesity, as well as other diseases will be less likely to invade your life.

Be healthy, be happy.