Avoid tobaco use

Tobacco use is the most important preventable illness and cause of death in the U.S., according to the National CancerInstitute (NCI). Tobacco use was estimated to be the cause of 443,000 deaths in 2010 in the U.S.

Tip:

• Stop smoking tobacco; start to stop today (it takes about 15 years of nonsmoking behavior to achieve a "normal" risk level for heart disease for those that smoke).
• Stop using chewing tobacco to avoid oral cancers.

Adverse consequences of tobacco use:

• Tobacco use causes or contributes a large number of cancers in the U.S. In men, 90% of lung cancer deaths are attributable to smoking; 80% in women. Tobacco use causes cancers of the lung, mouth, lip, tongue, esophagus,kidney, and bladder. It also further increases the risk of bladder cancer in subjects occupationally exposed to certain organic chemicals found in the textile, leather, rubber, dye, paint, and other organic chemical industries, and further increases the risk of lung cancer among subjects exposed to asbestos.
• Tobacco use causes atherosclerotic arterial disease (hardening and narrowing of the arteries) that can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and lack of blood flow to the lower extremities. Tobacco use causes an estimated 20%-30% of coronary heart disease in the U.S. It also further increases the risk of heart attacks among subjects with elevated cholesterol, uncontrolled hypertension, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle.
• Tobacco use causes an estimated 20% of chronic lung diseases in the U.S., such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and causespneumonia in those with chronic lung disease. The CDC, in 2011, estimates that 90% of deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) are due to smoking.
• Pregnant women who smoke are more likely to deliver babies with low birth weight.
• Secondhand smoke can cause middle-ear infections (otitis media), coughing, wheezing, bronchitis, and pneumonia in babies, and aggravate asthma in children. Secondhand smoke (sometimes referred to as passive smoking) can also cause lung cancer. Each year in the U.S., an estimated 49,000 deaths occur yearly that are attributable to passive smoking according to the NCI statistics.

Physical activity and exercise

Physical activity andexercise is a major contributor to a healthy lifestyle; people are made to use their bodies, and disuse leads to unhealthy living. Unhealthy living may manifest itself inobesity, weakness, lack of endurance, and overall poor health that may foster disease development.

Tips:

• Regular exercise can prevent and reverse age-related decreases in muscle mass and strength, improve balance, flexibility, and endurance, and decrease the risk of falls in the elderly. Regular exercise can help prevent coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Regular, weight-bearing exercise can also help prevent osteoporosis by building bone strength.
• Regular exercise can help chronic arthritis sufferers improve their capacity to perform daily activities such as driving, climbing stairs, and opening jars.
• Regular exercise can help increase self-esteem and self-confidence, decrease stress and anxiety, enhance mood, and improve general mental health.
• Regular exercise can help control weight gain and in some people cause loss of fat.
• Thirty minutes of modest exercise (walking is OK) at least three to five days a week is recommended, but the greatest health benefits come from exercising most days of the week.
• Exercise can be broken up into smaller 10-minute sessions.
• Start slowly and progress gradually to avoid injury or excessive soreness or fatigue. Over time, build up to 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day.
• People are never too old to start exercising. Even frail, elderly individuals (70-90 years of age) can improve their strength and balance with exercise.
• Almost any type of exercise (resistance, water aerobics, walking,swimming, weights, yoga, and many others) is helpful for everybody.
• Children need exercise; play outside of the home is a good beginning.
• Sports for children may provide excellent opportunities for exercise, but care must be taken not to overdo certain exercises (for example, throwing too many pitches in baseball may harm a joint like the elbow or shoulder).
• Exertion during strenuous exercise may make a person tired and sore, but if pain occurs, stop the exercise until the pain source is discovered; the person may need to seek medical help and advice about continuation of such exercise.

Most individuals can begin moderate exercise, such as walking, without a medical examination. The following people, however, should consult a doctor before beginning more vigorous exercise:

• Men over age 40 or women over age 50
• Individuals with heart or lung disease, asthma, arthritis, or osteoporosis
• Individuals who experience chest pressure or pain with exertion, or who develop fatigue or shortness of breath easily
• Individuals with conditions that increase their risks of developing coronary heart disease, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cigarette smoking, high blood cholesterol, or having family members who had early onset heart attacks and coronary heart disease
• Individuals who are morbidly obese

Consequences of physical inactivity and lack of exercise:

• Physical inactivity and lack of exercise are associated with heart disease and some cancers.
• Physical inactivity and lack of exercise are associated with type II diabetes mellitus (also known as maturity or adult-onset, non-insulin-dependent diabetes).
• Physical inactivity and lack of exercise contribute to weight gain

True Facts 5

North Dakota has never had an earthquake. 

Alexander Graham Bell (who invented the telephone) also set a world water-speed record of over seventy miles an hour at the age of 72. 

There is enough fuel in a full tank of a jumbo jet to drive an average car four times around the world. 

Hawaii is moving toward Japan 4 inches every year. 

Chimps are the only animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror. 

The leg bones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk. 

If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white. 

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. 

Almonds are members of the peach family. 

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable. 

Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day. 

One person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. 

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. 

In 2018, the month of February will not have a full moon. 

More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes. 

The dot that appears over the letter "i" is called a tittle. 

All major league baseball umpires must wear black underwear while on the job (in case their pants split). 

The Spanish word esposa means "wife." The plural, esposas, means "wives," but also "handcuffs." 

If the Nile River were stretched across the United States, it would run nearly from New York to Los Angeles. 

San Francisco cable cars are the only National Monuments that move. 

The Hoover Dam was built to last 2,000 years. Its concrete will not be fully cured for another 500 years. 

Abraham Lincoln's dog, Fido, was assassinated too. 

All of David Letterman's suits are custom made - there are no creases in his suit trousers. 

Cranberry Jell-O is the only flavor that contains real fruit flavoring. 

Fewer than half of the 16,200 major league baseball players have ever hit a home run. 

In comic strips, the person on the left always speaks first. 

Richard Versalle, a tenor performing at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, suffered a heart attack and fell 10 feet from a ladder to the stage just after singing the line "You can only live so long." 

If the entire population of earth was reduced to exactly 100 people, 51% would be female, 49% male; 50% of the world's currency would be held by 6 people, one person would be nearly dead, one nearly born. 

In 1920, Babe Ruth out-homered every American League team. 

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England, but only in tropical fish stores. 

Toxic house plants poison more children than household chemicals. 

The original name of Bank of America was Bank of Italy. 

The ant, when intoxicated, will always fall over to its right side. 

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has issued six driver's licenses to six different people named Jesus Christ. 

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike each year than all the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. 

Chicago is closer to Moscow than it is to Rio de Janeiro. 

Dogs have two sets of teeth, just like humans. They first have 30 "puppy" teeth, then 42 adult teeth. 

In 1950, President Harry Truman threw out the first ball twice at the opening day Washington DC baseball game; once right handed and once left handed.

True Facts 4

Fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented by women. 

Married men change their underwear twice as often as single men. 

There are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other day of the year. 

Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots. 

40% of all people who come to a party in your home snoop in your medicine cabinet. 

3.9% of all women surveyed say they never wear underwear. 

Superman is featured on every episode of "Seinfeld", either by name or pictures on Jerry's refrigerator. 

85% of the men that die while having sex are cheating on their wives. (thanks to Barbara Bassett) 

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the US Treasury. 

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class. 

Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28 

Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38 

Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80 

Percentage of American women who say they would marry the same man: 50 

Percentage of men who say they are happier after their divorce or separation: 58 

Percentage of women who say they are happier: 85 

Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches 

Percentage of bird species that are monogamous: 90 

Percentage of mammal species that are monogamous: 3 

Chances that a burglary in the United States will be solved: 1 in 7 

One third of the land in the United States is owned by the government. 

The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards. 

Between 1942 and 1944, Academy Awards were made of plaster. 

John Madden is an accomplished ballroom dancer. 

In 23 states, Wal-Mart is the single largest employer. 

Jim Gordon, drummer of Derek and the Dominos ("Layla"), killed his mother with a claw hammer. 

One of Hewlett Packard's first ideas was an automatic urinal flusher. 

Eric Clapton did not play the very famous first riff on the song "Layla". That was Duane Allman. Clapton comes in later. 

There are more cars in Southern California than there are cows in India. 

There is a two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zealand. The Kea likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows. 

The province of Alberta, Canada is completely free of rats. 

Illinois has the most personalized license plates of any state. 

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. 

There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. 

There are no venomous snakes in Maine. 

The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles. 

Erosion at the base of Niagara Falls (USA) undermines the shale cliffs and as a result, the falls have receded approximately 7 miles over the last 10,000 years. 

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

True Facts 3

The lead singer of The Knack, famous for "My Sharona," and Jack Kevorkian's lead defense attorney are brothers, Doug and Jeffrey Feiger. 

Two very popular and common objects have the same function, but one has thousands of moving parts, while the other has absolutely no moving parts - an hourglass and a sundial. 

One out of three employees who received a promotion use a coffee mug with the company logo on it. 

If you know a (male) millionaire who happens to be married, The most likely profession of his wife is a teacher. 

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. 

1 pound of lemons contain more sugar than 1 pound of strawberries. 

The "you are here" arrow on maps is called an ideo locator. 

60% of all US potato products originate in Idaho. 

61,000 people are airborne over the US at any given time. 

A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down. 

Mark Twain was born on a day in 1835 when Halley's Comet came into view. When he died in 1910, Halley's Comet was in view again. 

The Weddell seal can travel underwater for seven miles without surfacing for air. 

In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first (and only) home run. 

The longest words in the English language with only one syllable are the nine-letter "screeched" and "strengths". 

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye". 

All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" read 4:20. 

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate. 

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. 

A snail can have about 25,000 teeth. 

A snail can also sleep for three years. 

A starfish can turn its stomach inside out. 

A strand from the web of a golden spider is as strong as a steel wire of the same size. 

A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans. 

About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it. 

According to Genesis 1:20-22 the chicken came before the egg. 

Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand. 

The microwave oven was invented by mistake when an engineer testing a magnetron tube noticed that the radiation from it melted the chocolate bar he had in his pocket. 

Moisture, not air, causes super glue to dry. 

The Olympic flag's colors are always red, black, blue, green and yellow rings on a field of white. This is because at least one of those colors appears on the flag of every nation on the planet. 

Cats can hear ultrasound. 

In a recent survey, Americans revealed that banana was their favorite smell. 

In all three Godfather films, when you see oranges, there is a death (or a very close call) coming up soon. 

If you were to spell out numbers, you would you have to go until 1,000 until you would find the letter "A". 

23% of employees say they have had sex in the office.

True Facts 2

The average American drinks about 600 sodas a year. 

It's against the law to slam your car door in Switzerland. 

There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express, just horses. 

Honeybees have hair on their eyes. 

A jellyfish is 95 percent water. 

In Bangladesh, kids as young as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals. 

A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate. 

The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump. 

The most common name in the world is Mohammed. 

Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States. 

America once issued a 5-cent bill. 

You'll eat about 35,000 cookies in your lifetime. 

Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool. He changed it every 2 innings. 

Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung. 

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue. 

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying. 

The pitches that Babe Ruth hit for his last-ever homerun and that Joe DiMaggio hit for his first-ever homerun where thrown by the same man. 

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave. 

The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head. 

In Tokyo, they sell toupees for dogs. 

There are over 52.6 million dogs in the U.S. 

Dogs and cats consume almost $7 billion worth of pet food a year. 

Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day. 

The Pentagon has twice as many restrooms as necessary. When it was built, segregation was still in place in Virginia, so separate restrooms for blacks and whites were required by law. 

In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word. 

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. 

In 2003, there were 86 days of below-freezing weather in Hell, Michigan. 

It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is "shake" and the 46th word from the last word is "spear". 

If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long. 

The strength of early lasers was measured in Gillettes, the number of blue razor blades a given beam could puncture. 

The drive-through line on opening day at the McDonald's restaurant in Kuwait City, Kuwait was at times seven miles long. 

Point Roberts in Washington State is cut off from the rest of the state by British Columbia, Canada. If you wish to travel from Point Roberts to the rest of the state or vice versa, you must pass through Canada, including both Canadian and U.S. customs. 

The Pentagon in Washington, D. C. has five sides, five stories, and five acres in the middle. 

Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. 

There is an ATM at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, which has a winter population of 200.

True Facts 1

The youngest pope was 11 years old. 

Mark Twain didn't graduate from elementary school. 

Proportional to their weight, men are stronger than horses. 

Pilgrims ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving dinner. 

They have square watermelons in Japan - they stack better. 

Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation. 

Heinz Catsup leaving the bottle travels at 25 miles per year. 

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs. 

Armadillos can be housebroken. 

The first Fords had engines made by Dodge. 

A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night. 

Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite. 

Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone. 

A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside. 

A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove. 

A hummingbird weighs less than a penny. 

Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin. Today it is known as Tennessee. 

The flashing warning light on the cylindrical Capitol Records tower spells out HOLLYWOOD in Morse code. 

Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie. 

The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year. 

One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television. 

The average American will eat about 11.9 pounds of cereal per year. 

Over 1,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows. 

The State of Florida is bigger than England. 

Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning. 

Thomas Edison, light bulb inventor, was afraid of the dark. 

During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food. That's the weight of about 6 elephants. 

Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food. 

The world's oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old. 

In space, astronauts cannot cry, because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow. 

About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30. 

More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones. 

Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, every time you breathe. 

In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons. 

Slugs have 4 noses. 

Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to watch TV for 3 hours. 

Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet. 

Owls are the only birds who can see the color blue.