Saturday, February, 11, 2012

Healthy living

Table of Contents

Tips for healthy exercise:

  • Begin exercising gradually, perhaps with brisk walking. Don't expect to "get into shape" overnight. Your fitness should start to improve within 3 months, provided you maintain a consistent regimen.
  • You should work hard enough to sweat during each exercise period, but not so hard that you cannot carry on a conversation.
  • Plan an exercise routine that lasts 20 - 30 minutes, and perform the workout at least 3 - 5 days a week. Include stretching before and after your exercise. This will help avoid injury. Remember to start slowly and listen to your body. If it hurts badly, then you are probably overdoing it.
  • Aerobic exercises strengthen the heart and lungs and should be part of the fitness routine. Examples of good aerobic exercises include walking, running, jogging, swimming, cross-country skiing, rowing, rope skipping, dancing, racket sports, and cycling. For the biggest benefit, aerobic exercise must be sustained for at least a 10- to 12-minute period.
  • Strength and flexibility exercises are important and help you maintain your ability to do daily activites and maintain balance as you grow older.

Adjustments in exercise programs need to be made for children, pregnant women, the elderly, patients who are obese or disabled, and heart-attack survivors. Programs should also be modified for high altitudes and extreme hot or cold conditions.

See: Physical activity

SMOKING

Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States, and more than 400,000 Americans die each year from cigarette smoking. One out of every five deaths annually is either directly or indirectly caused by smoking.

Secondhand cigarette smoke exposure causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year. Studies have also linked secondhand smoke with heart disease.

The serious diseases most frequently caused by smoking are:

  • Angina
  • Chronic bronchitis
  • Emphysema
  • Heart attack
  • Leg pain as a result of blockages in lower extremity arteries (claudication)
  • Lung cancer (the risk for smokers is 10 times greater than for nonsmokers)
  • Stroke (the risk for smokers is almost 3 times greater than for nonsmokers)

It is never too late to quit smoking. Two years after stopping, your risk of heart attack returns to average and there your lung cancer risk drops by about a third. After 10 years of not smoking, your risk for lung cancer returns to near normal.

See: Smoking and smokeless tobacco

ALCOHOL USE

Consumption of alcohol gradually depresses brain function. Emotions, thought processes, and judgment are first to be affected by alcohol consumption. With continued drinking, motor control becomes impaired, causing slurred speech, slower reactions, and poor balance. Both increased body fat and drinking on an empty stomach speed the rate of alcohol intoxication.

See also: Alcoholism and alcohol use

The diseases most frequently caused by alcoholism are:

  • Acute and chronic pancreatitis
  • Bleeding esophageal varices
  • Cancer of larynx, esophagus, stomach and pancreas
  • Cardiomyopathy
  • Cirrhosis of the liver
  • Hepatitis
  • Impotence
  • Mallory-Weiss tear
  • Menstrual irregularity
  • Sleep disorders
  • Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome

Review Date: 04/30/2011
Reviewed By: Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Medical Director, MEDEX Northwest Division of Physician Assistant Studies, University of Washington, School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)