Resolutions for a healthy new year

The holiday season is a great opportunity to relax, spend time with family, and reflect on the past year. It's also a time when we tend to focus on accomplishments we want to achieve and goals we want to reach in the next 12 months. As is the case too often, resolutions are broken early on—or simply forgotten before January even ends.

With 2008 upon us, the AMA has created a list of resolutions to help all Americans become healthier in the new year. Helping our patients get healthier is one of the best gifts we can give them this holiday season. I hope you'll mention this list to your patients and remind them of these healthy lifestyle practices as the year progresses.

1. Improve your diet: Eat a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and trans fat, and high in fruits and vegetables to reduce cholesterol levels and the risk of obesity and heart disease.

2. Get more exercise: Increasing physical activity to at least 30 minutes a day, on five or more days a week, can drastically improve overall health and lower the risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, and obesity.

3. Quit smoking: Smoking, and being exposed to secondhand smoke, is the leading preventable cause of death in the country. When smokers quit, within just 20 minutes of smoking that last cigarette the body begins a series of changes to combat the damage cigarettes cause.

4. Keep your heart healthy: Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in this country. Having cholesterol levels and blood pressure checked regularly can reduce the chances of heart disease and stroke.

5. Stay away from excess salt: A diet high in sodium increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, so limit salt intake to one teaspoon per day. Those 50 or older should make that half a teaspoon. This will help lower blood pressure and decrease the chances of getting heart disease or having a stroke.

6. Get a flu shot: Getting an annual flu vaccination is the single best way to protect against the virus. With flu season lasting into the spring, vaccination in January or February is still effective and will have significant medical benefits.

7. Screen for cancer: Early detection is often the key to beating cancer. Women older than 40 need to schedule an annual mammogram to screen for breast cancer. All patients older than 50 should talk to a physician about a colonoscopy to improve the chances of early detection of colon cancer.

8. Protect your skin from the sun: Use a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher, and be sure to increase it to 30 or higher if exposed to the sun for a prolonged period. See a physician every year for a professional skin exam to detect early signs of skin cancer.

9. Vote with the uninsured in mind: People without health insurance tend to live sicker and die younger than those with health insurance. In this time of giving to others, be sure to vote in this year's election with the 47 million uninsured Americans in mind.

10. Talk to a physician: Many people only see a physician when they're ill, and they often overlook the fact that doctors are great resources for information on losing weight, reducing stress, quitting smoking, and other issues that may affect overall health. Contact your physician with health concerns or questions; he or she can help you achieve your health goals.

I hope you'll share these resolutions with your patients—and follow them yourselves. As I wrote in a previous column, the old adage "Do as I say, not as I do," doesn't apply; we need to practice what we preach. So, please, think about your own health plan and what you can do to ensure that you remain healthy in 2008 and for many years to come.

The lighter side

One of the resolutions above is to get more exercise and physical activity. One of my recent columns reported on the "Exercise is Medicine" initiative co-sponsored by the AMA and the American College of Sports Medicine.

The Nov. 23 issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicated that from 2001 to 2005, the prevalence of regular physical activity increased 8.6 percent among women (from 43.0 percent to 46.7 percent) and 3.5 percent among men (from 48.0 percent to 49.7 percent). That increase is heartening, but those percentages show that about half of adults still don't get regular physical activity.

Pedometers are used as one tool to motivate people to become more active. A systematic review of 26 studies of pedometer use, published in the Nov. 21 issue of JAMA, showed that pedometer use is associated with significant increases in physical activity and significant decreases in body mass index and blood pressure, at least in the short term.

Now here's the lighter side. In 2003, then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson received one of the AMA's Dr. Nathan Davis Awards for Outstanding Government Service. In his acceptance speech at the awards banquet, Thompson highlighted his department's programs on healthy lifestyles and touted his own personal focus on fitness. As evidence, he pulled his pedometer off his waist and held it up. He then looked at its readout and told the audience he was at about 3,500 steps—still well short of the goal of 10,000 steps for the day.

The next awardee, in his acceptance speech, commended Thompson for his commitment to fitness. He said he had just bumped into Thompson's driver, and in order to help Thompson achieve his goal of walking 10,000 steps that day, he had told the driver that his services were no longer needed and he was free to go. The audience roared with laughter, and to this day, I'm still not sure exactly how Thompson made his way home that evening.

Please send comments, questions, and replies to amaprez@ama-assn.org.