About This Program
FAQ | Everyday Choices Tips
Everyday Choices For A Healthier Life
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is “Everyday Choices For A Healthier Life?”
A: The American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association have joined together in a historic collaboration to encourage the prevention and early detection of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. “Everyday Choices For A Healthier Life” is a joint initiative with the goal of stimulating improvements in disease prevention and early detection by increasing public awareness about healthy lifestyles, increasing the focus on prevention among healthcare providers, and supporting legislative action to increase funding for and access to prevention programs and research. In 2006, we will introduce a new fully integrated campaign focusing on African American women.
Q: Why is this collaboration important?
A: Collectively, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke account for nearly two out of every three deaths in America today. African Americans suffer the highest mortality rates among the total population and African American women in particular are at highest risk for these chronic diseases. Lifestyle factors, such as obesity, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, and smoking have a significant impact on each of our organization’s areas of interest. With this collaboration, we set an ambitious agenda, one that serves to consistently remind us that working together we can achieve greater progress in health promotion and disease prevention than working alone.
The national investment in prevention by the United States was recently estimated at less than five percent of annual healthcare expenditures by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association are working together to strengthen the message to public, professional and legislative audiences that more needs to be done to reduce the underlying causes of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Q: Why cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke?
A : Each year, more than 1.5 million Americans die from cancer, diabetes, heart disease or stroke (National Vital Statistics Reports). Financially, it is estimated that these chronic diseases cost America more than $600 billion each year. Cancer costs America over $180 billion in direct and indirect costs; diabetes, $132 billion; and heart disease and stroke, $329 billion. The cost to America for obesity – which plays a role in all of these diseases – is estimated at $117 billion each year .
Q: What are the common risk factors among these four diseases?
A: Poor diet, excess weight, smoking and physical inactivity are significant risk factors for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Existing scientific evidence suggests that about one-third of cancer deaths in the United States each year are due to poor nutrition and physical inactivity factors, including being overweight. Obesity and lack of physical activity are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease and contribute to high blood pressure and elevated blood cholesterol, two other major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Tobacco use alone is a major risk factor for both cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and complicates diabetes treatment by greatly increasing the likelihood of heart attack or stroke.
Being overweight and inactive are also factors in the onset of type 2 diabetes and complicate the treatment of the disease; and, as obesity rates have risen and physical activity has declined in the United States, rates of type 2 diabetes have risen dramatically. Diabetes is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Q: What is the scientific foundation for the collaboration?
A : “Preventing Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes: A Common Agenda for the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association,” is a joint scientific statement that is being published in the American Cancer Society’s CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians (July/August 2004), the American Diabetes Association’s Journal, Diabetes Care (July 2004) and in the rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association (June 15, 2004).
Co-authored by physicians and scientists from the three organizations, the paper lays out the epidemiological and clinical evidence behind the shared prevention recommendations and those on early detection of disease, and explains the rationale and importance of working collectively.
Q: How will the campaign reach the public?
A: The public education component includes a three-year public service advertising campaign, sponsored by the Ad Council, a Web site (www.everydaychoices.org) and a toll-free number (1-866-399-6789) that consumers can call to receive a free brochure on making healthier choices. The public education campaign’s underlying message is to urge Americans to eat a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight, increase their physical activity, avoid tobacco products and see a primary care provider to assess their personal risk. Following these steps can significantly reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, which kill nearly two out of every three Americans who die each year.
Q: What does The Advertising Council campaign include?
A: The three-year public service campaign, developed and distributed in collaboration with the Advertising Council and produced by Publicis New York and Vigilante, also a New York-based agency, includes television, radio public service announcements in both English and Spanish, print ads for newspapers and magazines, Web banners, and outdoor billboard advertising. The messaging is aimed at women, ages 30-50, a demographic group identified by market research as most likely to influence family health and the most willing to make health-enhancing lifestyle changes. In 2006, public service announcements (PSAs) dedicated specifically to the high-risk African American community will be released.
The campaign’s call to action is basic: eat right, don’t smoke, get active and see your doctor. The messages focus on the idea of sisterhood and urge women to encourage and support their friends to eat right and get active.
Q: What is the Web site address, and how can the public get more information?
A: More information can be found at www.everydaychoices.org . This Web site provides information about the everyday choices people can make to improve their health and provides links to all three organizations for more information about each disease.
In addition, consumers can call a toll-free information line (1-866-399-6789) to request a free brochure.
Q: How will the organizations combine advocacy efforts?
A: In the advocacy arena, the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association work collaboratively to raise awareness among policymakers of the staggering human and financial costs of these chronic diseases by promoting legislation to increase funding and research into prevention and early detection. The organizations have a long history of working collaboratively to reduce tobacco use and eliminate harmful effects of smoking and secondhand smoke from the environment. The three organizations also advocate that states and local school districts increase the amount of physical education provided in schools to ensure that every student in grades K-8 participates in daily physical education. Through expanded physical education in schools, the health among our young people can be significantly improved, and the behaviors and activities they learn can help guide them towards a lifetime of physical fitness. An additional benefit of working collectively is that advocating the same set of core health recommendations will drive home the message that a healthy diet and weight loss and/or weight maintenance, physical activity, avoidance of tobacco and early detection have the potential to significantly reduce the prevalence of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Q: How do you plan to reach physicians and other healthcare providers? A: Physicians and other healthcare providers are critically important in influencing prevention and screening practices among their patients. Collectively, we have mapped out general prevention and screening guidelines for all average-risk adults that should guide healthcare provider recommendations to their patients. Strategies for getting the guidelines into the hands of the appropriate physician and healthcare provider groups will be an ongoing process. Consideration is being given to identifying segments of the population at average risk by working with major health plans and distributing materials to their provider network or by working directly with the professional societies to distribute materials to their members.
Q: What are the screening guidelines recommended by the ACS, ADA and AHA ?
A:Men & Women
- Blood pressure measurement: Starting at age 20, each regular healthcare visit, at least every two years
- Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement: Starting at age 20, each regular healthcare visit
- Blood cholesterol test: Starting at age 20, at least every five years
- Blood glucose (sugar) test: Starting at age 45, every three years
- Colorectal screening: Starting at age 50, every 1-10 years depending on the test your doctor uses
Women
- Clinical breast exam (CBE): Starting at age 20, every three years; yearly after age 40
- Mammography: Starting at age 40, yearly
after age 40
- Pap test:
Starting at age 20, yearly after age 30, every 1-3 years, depending on the test your doctor uses and past results
Men
- Prostate specific antigen test and digital rectal exam: Starting at age 50, ask your doctor about the pros and cons of testing
Q: Are the three organizations recommending a new diet that Americans should be following?
A: No. The American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association have been advocating the same healthy dietary pattern for many years. Described broadly, the organizations recommend consuming a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains; limiting red meat, full-fat dairy products, and foods and beverages high in added sugar; and incorporating more healthful fats into their diets, such as those found in nuts, fish and vegetable oils.
Nutrition information specific to each disease can be found at:
Q: What do the three organizations recommend for physical activity?
A : The American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association continue to recommend at least 30 minutes of physical activity on five or more days a week. This activity can be done in 10-minute increments and can include any moderate- intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking, dancing, swimming, bicycling, stair climbing, etc. Individuals who have not been active should speak with their healthcare provider about appropriate activities prior to beginning an exercise regimen.
Q: What about alcohol?
A: Each organization continues to recommend that if you choose to drink alcoholic beverages, you should do so in moderation. This means alcohol intake should be limited to no more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men. While moderate alcohol consumption may be beneficial to reduce the risk of heart disease, alcohol may increase the risk of a variety of cancers. Individuals should therefore discuss their risk of heart disease and cancer with their healthcare provider, and make an informed choice about alcohol consumption. Even though moderate consumption may reduce the risk of heart disease, if an individual does not currently drink alcohol, it is not recommended that they begin drinking to reduce heart disease risk. There are many other ways to reduce risk, including eating a healthy diet, being physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, and avoiding tobacco products.
Q: What types of cancer are influenced by diet, physical activity and weight?
A: It is estimated that one-third of all cancer deaths are related to poor diet, physical inactivity and excess weight. Being overweight or obese – frequently the result of poor diets and physically inactive lifestyles – is associated with an increased risk of many types of cancer, including cancers of the esophagus, colon and rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidney, non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma and multiple myeloma, as well as cancers of the stomach and prostate in men and cancers of the breast, uterus, cervix and ovaries in women.
Q: What's the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, particularly as it relates to lifestyle factors?
A: Type 1: Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body does not produce the insulin it needs to process glucose (sugar). Insulin is a hormone that is produced in the pancreas that serves as a catalyst that enables the body to transform food into energy. The cause of type 1 diabetes is currently unknown.
Type 2: There are several risk factors for type 2 diabetes that people cannot change, such as age, family history, and ethnicity (African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American or Asian Americans). However, there are some lifestyle behaviors that can increase a person's chances of developing type 2 diabetes, such as being overweight or physically inactive. The good news is that these lifestyle-related risk factors can be addressed. Even though type 2 diabetes is at least partially genetically determined, people can decrease their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by staying active, and maintaining a healthy weight.
Q: How do obesity and lack of physical activity impact heart disease and stroke risk?
A: Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle are independent contributing risk factors to the development of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, a major risk factor for both heart attack and stroke, and elevated levels of cholesterol, a major risk factor for heart attack and a contributing risk factor for stroke. In addition, both obesity and physical inactivity are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
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