Five New Year's resolutions worth making

Healthy living is top of everyone’s list of New Year’s resolutions. But there’s no point setting yourself impossible goals or spending a lot of money on things that may not work. Here are five simple things you can do that will improve your health in 2008, all based on good-quality medical evidence.

Stop smoking

It’s the best New Year’s present you can give yourself. Smoking damages health in so many ways: it can affect your heart, lungs and skin, and increases your risk of many types of cancer. Within a few weeks of quitting, research shows you could be feeling fitter and healthier, as well as richer. It isn’t easy to give up, but it is easy to get help. Your local pharmacist or GP surgery will be delighted to help you quit. There are lots of products that can help you through the initial cravings. Most people need more than one attempt, so don’t lose heart if you don’t manage it first time.

Build regular exercise into your day

Here are just some of the things regular exercise can protect against: high blood pressure, heart attacks, angina, varicose veins, lung disease, arthritis, weak bones, back pain, depression, diabetes and constipation; the list goes on. Exercise helps you keep a healthy weight and makes you feel better. An exercise programme may even help you get through cigarette cravings if you're giving up smoking. But it’s important to find a type of exercise you enjoy. There’s no point joining a gym if you know you’ll never go. Instead, try swimming with a group of friends, taking long walks or learning ballroom dancing. If time is a problem, try cycling to the shops, or to work. You might even find it’s quicker than taking the car.

Drink alcohol in moderation

It’s easy to drink too much over the festive period, and many of us start the New Year with resolutions to cut down. Drinking too much alcohol doesn’t just give you a day’s hangover. Regularly over-indulging can also increase your chances of liver disease and several kinds of cancer. So how much is too much? The Department of Health advises that men should not regularly drink more than 3 to 4 units of alcohol per day, and women should not regularly drink more than 2 to 3 units of alcohol per day. A unit of alcohol is 10 millilitres (ml) of pure alcohol. Here are the units in some common drinks: a pint of ordinary-strength lager or bitter is 2 units; a pint of strong lager or best bitter is 3 units; a 175 ml glass of wine at 13 percent strength is 2.3 units; and a pub measure of spirits is 1 unit. It’s also a good idea not to drink every day, to give your body time to process the alcohol.

Keep to a healthy weight

The World Cancer Research Fund says staying at a healthy weight throughout your life is the second-best thing you can do to avoid cancer, after not smoking. We all know how it’s done: a healthy diet with fewer calories, and plenty of exercise. But it never seems to be as easy as it sounds. The trouble is, there are no short cuts. Losing weight steadily and slowly is thought to be the best option; it's the same way we put weight on. Joining a weight-loss group may help you keep motivated if you need to lose a lot of weight. If you don’t need to lose weight, it’s still worth looking at your diet. Recent studies have confirmed that people who eat a ‘Mediterranean-style’ diet live longer. But you don’t need to do anything exotic. Just eat plenty of vegetables and fruit, fish and olive oil, and cut back on red meat and dairy products.

Say yes to NHS cancer screening

No one wants to think about their risk of cancer. But NHS cancer screening programmes can help find cancers at an early stage, when they are easier to treat. There are three major programmes in the UK to help spot signs of cancer early.

• Cervical screening (using smear tests) is for women aged 25 to 64. You can be tested at your GP surgery every three to five years, depending on your age. Smear tests spot abnormal cells in the cervix (neck of the womb), most of which don’t cause any problems. Any abnormal cells are checked to be sure they aren’t early signs of cancer.
• Breast screening is for women aged 50 to 70, although if you’re over 70 you can tell your GP you want to take part. You’ll be sent an invitation to have a mammogram, which is a type of X-ray of your breast to look for any abnormalities.
• Bowel cancer screening is a new programme, being introduced across the UK over the next two years. In England it will be offered to everyone aged 60 to 69. In Scotland and Wales the age range for the test is between 50 and 74. You do the test at home and send a stool sample off for analysis. If the analysis finds any blood in your stool, you’ll be invited to go for further tests.