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. If cancer and heart disease are so frightening, then why is 1 in 3 Americans obese, and why does only 1 in 10 eat the recommended number of servings of fruits and vegetables? The American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, here in their first jointly written book, think it may be because of the onslaught of conflicting health information announced by the media. It's also a byproduct of managed care, because you're likely to be told you have high blood pressure and have a prescription swiftly given to you, whether or not you know how dangerous this may be, what your exact reading was, or what "blood pressure" really means. Living Well, Staying Well aims to remedy these problems with its practical, easy-to-follow guidelines to help you reduce your risk of developing cancer and heart disease by teaching you how to cut high cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, lose weight, and eat right.

These are daunting, even overwhelming tasks, to be sure, and that's why the authors have smartly broken each health "project" into simple steps. From 23 sneaky ways to work physical fitness into your day to proven tips for quitting smoking, Living Well, Staying Well's main aim is to help you take better care of yourself, one day at a time. The ACS and the AHA don't want you to become a statistic (and they're scary: each year, 1.5 million Americans have a heart attack and 1.2 million are diagnosed with cancer). Living Well, Staying Well can help you help yourself prevent health problems, all in a friendly, accessible format. Highly recommended.