Living Well, Staying Well:: Big Health Rewards from Small Lifestyle Changes (American Heart Association)

You want to stay healthy and avoid illness. This sounds like a simple goal, yet it can seem frustratingly out of reach. You may be confused by the medical information you glean from the headlines -- each new health study seems to contradict the one before it, and you never know how much of all this information is fact, hype, or fashion. You may want to lead a more healthful lifestyle but believe you don't have the time or ability to make the huge changes you think are needed to achieve that.

Here to cut through all the confusion is Living Well, Staying Well, created by the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. It's the ultimate guide to achieving wellness and avoiding two of life's most devastating illnesses -- heart disease and cancer.

The good news is that there's a lot you can do to achieve maximum health and avoid heart disease and cancer. The better news is that you don't have to make drastic changes in your lifestyle to achieve the reward of improved health. The latest scientific research demonstrates that making even small changes in your life can add up to big health benefits.

Living Well, Staying Well is real information for real people. No drastic diet that forces you to give up all the food you love. No grueling exercise campaign you can't stick with. No special products you have to buy. Here is practical, step-by-step advice on how to reduce specific health risks -- having high blood pressure, having high cholesterol levels, being overweight, and more -- all designed to inspire you to make lifestyle changes you can stay with for a lifetime. Based on solid science, this is advice you can trust -- and advice that will last a lifetime.

With the aid of the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, two of the nation's most trusted health authorities, you can create a personal wellness program that could help you avoid life-threatening illness and enjoy many added years of optimal health.

The American Heart Association, based in Dallas, Texas, has affiliates that serve the entire United States. The AHA library includes the AHA Cookbook, Fifth Edition; AHA Brand Name Fat and Cholesterol Counter, Second Edition; AHA Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook; AHA Low-Salt Cookbook; and AHA Quick and Easy Cookbook. The American Cancer Society is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with fifty-seven state Divisions and more than three thousand local Units nationwide.

In Living Well, Staying Well, you'll learn dozens of ways to achieve maximum health by making small changes that can add up to big health rewards. Here are a few examples:
-- Fill out the "What Happens When I Quit Smoking" questionnaire to pinpoint the best strategy for you to use to break the nicotine habit. Then follow "The Five Ds" to help you stick with it. After your last smoke, it will take only twenty minutes for your blood pressure to return to normal. After forty-eight hours, your damaged nerve endings will start to regrow. And by one year after you quit, your heart attack risk will decrease by half.
-- Try switching from whole milk to 1 percent or nonfat milk for your cereal, coffee, and baking. A cup of whole milk has about twice as many calories as a cup of nonfat/skim milk -- twenty times as much fat! Make the switch and see how quickly those calorie savings add up.
-- Take the salt shaker off your table, and put a pepper mill, lemon slices, and a shaker with well-seasoned vinegar there instead -- and see how easy it is to keep your sodium level down!
-- To fit fitness into a hectic lifestyle, use the walk-up instead of the drive-in lane at the bank, park your car several blocks from your destination and walk the rest of the way, or go to a museum instead of a movie. Even standing up instead of sitting while you talk on the phone or watching TV sitting up instead of lying down can help.
-- Put sunscreen on your children, thereby helping them avoid up to 80 percent of skin damage.