Weight loss and diet plan for a healthy lifestyle.

For those who already have bone density low enough to increase their fracture risk, there’s another important level of risk reduction: safety-proofing your home to reduce the risk of falls or other accidents that might provoke a fracture. If these steps don’t concern you directly, they may still be valuable advice for a friend or loved one. The following list will get you started:Avoid clutter on the floor, and especially on steps, so you won’t trip or slip.Carpet slippery floors. Avoid cleansers, waxes, or polishes that make floors slippery. Wipe up spills as soon as they occur. Use rubber nonskid mats under area rugs.Install handrails in the shower and bathtub, and use rubber decals on the floor to keep you from slipping.Replace tables or other furniture low enough to be out of your normal line of vision that you might trip over.Keep phone and electrical cords short, off the floor, and properly affixed against walls or baseboards so you won’t trip over them.Make sure hallways, closets, and especially stairs are well lit—bright enough, but without glare.Install handrails on both sides of all staircases.Keep flashlights handy, and put in night-lights anywhere you might be walking during the night. Don’t walk around your house in the dark.Some additional safety strategies:Choose supportive shoes without slippery soles, but also avoid those with such heavy rubber soles that they might actually trip you up.Avoid clothes long enough to get caught under your foot, particularly on stairs.Be aware of medication side effects or interactions that affect your balance or coordination, and ask your doctor or pharmacist about alternatives.Keep your blood pressure within the normal range.Exercise to build strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination, all of which help prevent falls.Have your hearing and vision tested and corrected as well as possible, and be rescreened regularly.Keep phones in as many rooms as possible in case you do fall and need to call for help.Use the appropriate assistance for walking: cane, walking stick, or walker. It won’t do you any good to have one you don’t use.If you fall and think you’ve broken something, don’t move—or let anyone else move you—until you get professional assistance. In general, after a fall, don’t put weight on an injury, and move slowly. See your doctor.If you have a pet, keep careful track of its whereabouts— and the whereabouts of its balls and toys—so you don’t trip over a snoozing animal companion.Organize your things so you don’t have to bend over or reach overhead for things you use frequently. Don’t climb on chairs to reach what is up too high. Use a sturdy stepping stool designed for the purpose if you must, but you’d be better off asking for help.Get help with heavy lifting, or opening stubborn doors or windows.To pick up something from the floor, bend at the knees, not the waist.As the old joke goes, the falling isn’t so bad. It’s hitting the ground that really gets you. Take the time to protect yourself so you don’t have to find out for yourself.*35\228\2*

WARNING: The diet should not be attempted on your own. The diet will only work when it, and you, are carefully supervised by a dietician familiar with using the diet. The diet may be dangerous if not done properly.WARNING: The diet is deficient in vitamins B and C as well as in calcium and these must be given as supplements in a sugar-free form. Also, remember that today many things like toothpaste, vitamins, and children’s antibiotics and cough syrups have added glucose. If your child is on the ketogenic diet, you must read every label carefully and, if in doubt about added sugar, check with your physician, the dietician, or the manufacturer.Small deviations in the diet can result in a seizure. Indeed, if a child has been well-controlled on the diet and has a seizure, you can almost be sure that the child has eaten a cookie, a piece of candy, or a bit of dog food. (Yes, small children can get into the dog food!) Should this happen, a day of starvation followed by reinstitution of the diet usually will re-achieve control.*145\208\8*

In large amounts, nicotinic acid stops the liver from making certain lipoproteins that give rise to LDL. Result: the body slows production of the “bad cholesterol.” Nicotinic acid’s side effects include your face and body possibly becoming very flushed, and nausea may occur. If you can get through the first 3 or 4 weeks, the side effects vanish. Nicotinic acid also cuts the risk of heart disease.Three other drugs – gemfibrozil, lo-vastatin, and probucol – slow the making of LDL to varying degrees and help lower cholesterol in the process. In a study done in Helsinki, Finland, gemfibrozil was shown also to cut the risk of heart disease.If your total cholesterol count exceeds 240 mg/dl, your doctor will order the LDL tests for you. If you’re at high risk, or if your LDL level soars above 160 mg/dl, you will be told to follow a stringent diet program and, depending on the doctor, a regular exercise regimen too. If this fails to lower your cholesterol, drugs probably will be prescribed.Some people maintain that if you have a high HDL level, regardless of how high your total cholesterol is, you have nothing to worry about. Still, the experts also caution that if the LDL level is high, there is cause for concern.Dr. DeWitt Goodman, a professor at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York who headed a panel of experts for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, says data show that lowering LDL lowers the risk of heart disease. “The vast majority of people,” he says, “can reduce their risk of heart disease by lowering total cholesterol.”If you get your total blood-cholesterol below 200 mg/dl, you have optimized your chances of escaping a heart attack.Will programs to lower cholesterol result in a higher risk of cancer, as some people have said? All the experts we consulted denied that it was a proven risk. In fact, Dr. Goodman says, by eating a lowered-fat diet, you may reduce your chances of colon cancer a well as several other kinds of cancer.Dr. LaRosa of the American Heart Association says, “It is most important or one with high cholesterol levels and other risk factors to reduce those levels.”Dr. Jeremiah Stamler says you can add up to 8 years to your life expectancy, and even more under some conditions. He compares two men: One smokes and has a high cholesterol level; the other doesn’t smoke and has a low cholesterol level. The chances are that the low-risk man will live up to 10 years longer than the other man. Some critics assert that lowering cholesterol would yield only small increases in life expectancy, from a few months to a year. Dr. Goodman counters that if the cholesterol treatment delays the onset of a heart attack that alone makes it all worthwhile.*12/266/5*