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Healthy Living & Medications

Your prescription drugs will be more effective if you can take steps toward adopting a healthier lifestyle.

Expert guidelines for the management of common medical problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol call for medications as part of a broader therapeutic program that includes diet, physical activity, weight loss, and tobacco avoidance. The Surgeon General has found that a wide array of medical problems can be caused by physical inactivity. These are just a few examples.

All of us need to take steps toward living healthier lives, both personally and as a community.

Personal

There are excellent resources for you on the Web. Here are a few:

• The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's Aim for a Healthy Weight page is a good place to start if you think you might be overweight.
• Kaiser Permanente's "A healthier weight for a healthier life" was created for Kaiser members but is good advice for all San Franciscans.
• If you have high blood pressure, the DASH eating plan has been clinically proven to reduce blood pressure.
• The President's HealthierUS initiative will link you to helpful information about physical fitness, nutrition, and tobacco avoidance.
• You can find information on a wide array of health issues at the National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus.

Community

The choices we make in creating healthier lifestyles for ourselves are determined by the communities in which we live. The SF Department of Public Health partners with other City Departments and with a wide array of community groups in programs that will improve the health of the entire population. According to the Institute of Medicine, public health is "what we, as a society, do collectively to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy." Here is a sampling of Web resources, both national and local, that describe this larger perspective on health:

• A CDC Task Force is building a Guide to Community Preventive Services that is based on the best scientific evidence.
• The Surgeon General's Call To Action To Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity
• The Department of Public Health's Tobacco Free Project
• The Department of Public Health sponsors a number of traffic safety projects that are aimed at creating conditions that favor walking.
• A variety of interventions can improve physical activity and diet in San Francisco.