Nearly 21 percent of U.S. adults smoke cigarettes, and countless others have smoked at some point in their life. This habit continues to be the leading cause of preventable death in the country, causing about one out of every five deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A top health concern for smokers is lung cancer, of which smoking causes about 90 percent of cases. Your risk of dying from lung cancer is 23 times higher for men who smoke cigarettes and 13 times higher for women compared to non-smokers. Aside from lung cancer, smoking can lead to other forms of cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive lung disease.

The best way to prevent these illnesses, of course, is to quit smoking. But for those who are current or past smokers, there may be a way to reduce some of the harm cigarettes do to your body: make wise food choices.

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Your double-chin may be inherited from your mother, or it could have been slowly accumulating due to the forces of gravity and time. You may also be predisposed to a double-chin because of the shape of your neck and jaw — and sometimes double-chins just happen, for no good reason at all.

One thing for certain is that most people who have a double-chin want to know how to get rid of it. You may even have considered plastic surgery, as liposuction to the chin can often remove the fat and sagging skin that causes a double-chin in the first place. Of course, plastic surgery is expensive and carries with it significant risks.

It’s also completely unnecessary because a double-chin can be eliminated naturally.

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Most of us clean our homes regularly, but when was the last time you cleaned out your home’s clutter? Clutter can be anything from stacks of mail taking over your kitchen table to too many toiletries under your bathroom sink.

Clutter takes the form of leftover Christmas wrapping paper and bows that you’re saving for next year to those coffee mugs your friends brought you from their trip to Disney World, which you just can’t get rid of.

While most of us revel in the clutter-free spaces that exist in nice hotel rooms, model homes and pictures in magazines, our own homes are typically far from serene — and our peace of mind is paying for it!

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There was both good and bad news in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) monumental “Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals.”

Good news first. The study, which CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding says is the “largest and most comprehensive report of its kind ever released anywhere by anyone,” found that secondhand smoke exposure among Americans has gone down significantly, as have lead blood levels in children.

Specifically, from 1999 to 2002, exposure to secondhand smoke, as measured by median levels of cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, decreased (compared to levels from 1988-1991):

• 68 percent in children
• 69 percent in adolescents
• 75 percent in adults

And, only 1.6 percent of children between the ages of 1 and 5 had elevated blood lead levels, compared to 4.4 percent in the early 1990s.

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Acne vulgaris — just the sound of the word conjures up unpleasant images and those teenagers and adults suffering from this condition usually end up enduring years of emotional distress and, in some cases, physical scarring of the skin.

While this condition afflicts almost 85 percent of the young adult population aged 12 through 24, it doesn’t simply end there. Acne affects people of all ages. Considered one of the most common skin diseases, it ranges in severity from mild to moderate and tends to flare up in the following categories and life stages:

• Women going through hormonal changes such as during pregnancy, menstrual cycles and when starting or stopping birth control pills
• Teens reaching puberty
• Those facing stressful situations

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If you’re thinking of ever selling your home or are in the market to buy, planting trees on your property, can add strong value to your property (or choosing a home that has them). In general, properties with trees sell faster, and at a higher rate, than properties with no trees. However, the type of tree you plant, its maturity and its potential function all influence the perceived value.

“Good tree cover or well-spaced mature trees can increase the value of a developed property by 6 percent to 15 percent, or add 20 percent to 30 percent to the value of an undeveloped property,” according to the Minnesota Society of Arboriculture.

Why Trees are So Desirable

Trees, of course, make an aesthetically pleasing addition to just about any landscape. However, they offer benefits even beyond their natural beauty.

Shade and Energy Conservation: Mature shade trees, strategically placed, can reduce cooling costs by up to 25 percent during the summer months, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. They can also be used to form a windbreak that can cut winter heating costs by 20 percent, and to provide a natural barrier to drifting snow, in areas where this is problematic.

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Your appendix is a 3-1/2 inch long finger-shaped pouch that extends from your large intestine, on the lower right side of your abdomen. For ages it  has been thought that the appendix has no real purpose.

In fact, even Charles Darwin said the appendix is a “vestigial organ,” or one that has become essentially useless over time — a concept that is still spouted in biology textbooks to this day.

Recently, however, researchers from Duke University Medical Center have made a very good case for why your appendix may actually be incredibly important. Writing in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, they point out that an appendix “has been maintained in mammalian evolution for 80 million years or longer.”

The fact that it has been around for so long, surviving species changes and also existing in a wide variety of species (70 percent of all primate and rodent groups contain species with an appendix, according to the Duke researchers) suggests it plays a critical function in survival … but what?

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The American Cancer Society has estimated that 745,180 men and 692,000 women will have cancer this year in the United States. Of those cases, the most common are cancers of the skin, prostate cancer in men, breast and uterine-related cancers in women, lung, and colon and rectum — in both men and women.

Early detection of the disease followed by timely treatment increases the survival rates for people who suffer from cancer. There are a number of cancer screening tests that are advocated by doctors and organizations such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Cancer Society (ACS).

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A national health care debate on reducing obesity* has resulted in mandatory postings of calories on some of the menus in fast-food chain restaurants. A recent study tracked what people ate at four popular fast-food restaurants — McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken — and found that customers consumed even more calories after they were posted on menus.

*Obesity… Three points of measure:

1. “If the waist measurement doubled (x2) is same or greater than height” (a simple point of measure according to Dr. Oz)
2. According to the CDC, For adults, overweight and obesity ranges are determined by using weight and height to calculate a number called the “body mass index” (BMI). BMI is used because, for most people, it correlates with their amount of body fat.
   • An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight.
   • An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.
3. For children and teens, BMI ranges above a normal weight have different labels (at risk of overweight and overweight). Additionally, BMI ranges for children and teens are defined so that they take into account normal differences in body fat between boys and girls and differences in body fat at various ages. For more information about BMI for children and teens (also called BMI-for-age), visit BMI for Children and Teens.

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