Ways to Prevent a Heart Attack!! (NHBI)

Healthy Lifestyle Choices
Healthy lifestyle choices to help prevent heart attack include:

Following a low-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Pay careful attention to the amounts and types of fat in your diet. Lower your salt intake. These changes can help lower high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
Losing weight if you're overweight or obese.
Quitting smoking.
Doing physical activity to improve heart fitness. Ask your doctor how much and what kinds of physical activity are safe for you.
Treat Related Conditions
In addition to making lifestyle changes, you can help prevent heart attacks by treating conditions you have that make a heart attack more likely:

High blood cholesterol. You may need medicine to lower your cholesterol if diet and exercise aren't enough.
High blood pressure. You may need medicine to keep your blood pressure under control.
Diabetes (high blood sugar). If you have diabetes, control your blood sugar levels through diet and physical activity (as your doctor recommends). If needed, take medicine as prescribed.

What is Fibromyalgia? (NFA Site)

Fibromyalgia (pronounced fy-bro-my-AL-ja) is a common and complex chronic pain disorder that affects people physically, mentally and socially. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome rather than a disease. Unlike a disease, which is a medical condition with a specific cause or causes and recognizable signs and symptoms, a syndrome is a collection of signs, symptoms, and medical problems that tend to occur together but are not related to a specific, identifiable cause.



Fibromyalgia, which has also been referred to as fibromyalgia syndrome, fibromyositis and fibrositis, is characterized by chronic widespread pain, multiple tender points, abnormal pain processing, sleep disturbances, fatigue and often psychological distress. For those with severe symptoms, fibromyalgia can be extremely debilitating and interfere with basic daily activities.



Whether you have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia or suffer from its symptoms, or have a family member or friend with the disorder, this section is designed to provide you with a better understanding of this chronic pain disorder that affects millions of people worldwide.



Symptoms Causes FM Fact Sheet
Diagnosis Prognosis Economic Burden
Treatment Science of FM Research Abstracts
Prevalence Newly Diagnosed Patients Clinical Trials

What is Lupus!!! (by: Lupus Foundation)

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). Chronic means that the signs and symptoms tend to last longer than six weeks and often for many years. In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs ("foreign invaders," like the flu). Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protect the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues ("auto" means "self") and creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body.

* Lupus is also a disease of flares (the symptoms worsen and you feel ill) and remissions (the symptoms improve and you feel better). Lupus can range from mild to life-threatening and should always be treated by a doctor. With good medical care, most people with lupus can lead a full life.
* Lupus is not contagious, not even through sexual contact. You cannot "catch" lupus from someone or "give" lupus to someone.
* Lupus is not like or related to cancer. Cancer is a condition of malignant, abnormal tissues that grow rapidly and spread into surrounding tissues. Lupus is an autoimmune disease, as described above.
* Lupus is not like or related to HIV (Human Immune Deficiency Virus) or AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). In HIV or AIDS the immune system is underactive; in lupus, the immune system is overactive.
* Our research estimates that at least 1.5 million Americans have lupus. The actual number may be higher; however, there have been no large-scale studies to show the actual number of people in the U.S. living with lupus.
* It is believed that 5 million people throughout the world have a form of lupus.
* Lupus strikes mostly women of childbearing age (15-44). However, men, children, and teenagers develop lupus, too.
* Women of color are 2-3 times more likely to develop lupus.
* People of all races and ethnic groups can develop lupus.
* More than 16,000 new cases of lupus are reported annually across the country.