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Summary
Many factors affect your health. Some you cannot control, such as your genetic makeup or your age. But you can make changes to your lifestyle. By taking steps toward healthy living, you can help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke and other serious diseases:
- Get the screening tests you need
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Eat a variety of healthy foods, and limit calories and saturated fat
- Be physically active
- Control your blood pressure and cholesterol
- Don't smoke
- Protect yourself from too much sun
- Drink alcohol in moderation, or don't drink at all
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Latest News
- Parents Can Play Key Role in Setting Healthy Habits for Kids (09/02/2016, HealthDay)
- Want Better Heart Health? There's an App for That (08/31/2016, HealthDay)
Diagnosis and Tests
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MedlinePlus: Health Screening
(National Library of Medicine)
Also in Spanish
Related Issues
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Changing Your Habits: Steps to Better Health (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)
- PDF
- Disability and Health: Healthy Living (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
- Health Guides: Health Is a State of Mind and Body (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
- How Can Spirituality Affect Your Family's Health? (Nemours Foundation)
- Make Celebrations Fun, Healthy, and Active: 10 Tips to Creating Healthy, Active Events (Department of Agriculture) - PDF
- Mind/Body Connection: How Your Emotions Affect Your Health (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
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Mindfulness Matters Can Living in the Moment Improve Your Health? (National Institutes of Health)
- Music for Your Health (American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists)
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Plants: Partners in Health? Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, and You (National Institutes of Health)
Health Check Tools
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Body Weight Planner (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)
- SuperTracker: My Foods. My Fitness. My Health. (Department of Agriculture)
Videos and Tutorials
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Sleep and Health
(Harvard Medical School)
Statistics and Research
- FastStats: How Healthy Are We? (National Center for Health Statistics)
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Resveratrol Does Not Affect Health, Longevity in Population Study (National Institute on Aging)
Journal ArticlesReferences and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
Reference Desk
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Definitions of Health Terms: General Health (National Library of Medicine)
Find an Expert
- AMA Physician Select: Online Doctor Finder (American Medical Association)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Also in Spanish
Children
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Healthy Living (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)
- Kids: Passing on Healthy Habits to Your Children (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
- Tips for Healthy Children and Families (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
Men
- Stay Healthy (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
Women
- Lifetime of Good Health: Your Guide to Staying Healthy (Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health) - PDF Also in Spanish
- Women: Stay Healthy at Any Age (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) Also in Spanish
Seniors
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MedlinePlus: Healthy Aging (National Library of Medicine)
Also in Spanish
Patient Handouts
- Healthy living Also in Spanish
