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Diet tips: 6 healthy eating habits you should include in your lifestyle | Health

Bethenny Frankel rightly said, “Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are your investments” hence, if you form healthy eating habits for yourself, it will be easier for you to have healthier meals every day without worrying much about it. Incorporating healthy eating into your lifestyle will help in having a healthy relationship with your food.

Around 70{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of deaths in India are accounted for non-communicable diseases most of which are lifestyle disorders. Healthy eating habits not just save you from lifestyle disorders but enable you to enjoy the true pleasure of eating.

A new year is about to begin, and along with that are “Healthy vows” piling up. Healthy eating habits are not just an action but rather a mindset you build over a period of time.

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Shikha Gupta, Celebrity Nutritionist, suggested 3 healthy eating habits that you should include in your lifestyle right away:

1. Include a variety of food groups in your daily diet – Try to add as much variety to your diet through food groups like whole grains, pulses, lentils, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats. The more the variety, more the nutrients you will get from them which will reduce your risk of falling prey to chronic diseases.

2. Eat local and seasonal foods – Many of the foods that you get in your groceries may have lost most of their nutrients because they have been sitting on that shelf for so many days before you buy them. Having foods that are local and in season gives you the highest amount of nutrients and antioxidants that your body needs.

3. Eating slowly and mindfully – When you eat your food without any distractions and chew your food well, you will gain control of how much you are eating. It will help you understand for yourself when you are full.

Bringing her expertise to the same, Dietitian Garima Goyal recommended the top 3 eating habits which are not just healthy but easy to implement:

Plan your meal – Do you keep losing your grip on sticking to healthy eating? Then, planning your meal ahead is one of your best bets. A simple meal prep will save you time in thinking about your next meal and it is a cost-effective strategy too. when you are uncertain about your next meal, you may tend to make random choices which when not balanced becomes a concern. So, before your week starts make a grocery list and keep your pantry stocked. If you can’t prepare everything from scratch then follow some easy meal prep to get things done fast.
Do not starve in the name of dieting – A healthy eating habit is indeed a lifestyle and not a ritual you have to follow for some particular days. Now is the time, to bid bye to your restrictive meal plans which make you feel hungry and tired often. Follow a nourishing and wholesome diet to feel refreshed and energized. Keep your plates filled with different foods from various food groups unless restricted for medical reasons.
Practice intuitive eating – One way to not fall into restrictive diets is by practicing intuitive eating. The art of eating lies in the way we appreciate our body and understand the cues it sends. The essence of intuitive eating is knowing when to eat and when to stop. Understand your hunger cues and do not force yourself to refrain from a treat or complete a plate of boiled veggies. Being food police will soon put you off the lane of following a healthy journey.

So, start incorporating these habits into your lifestyle right away to improve your relationship with food. Adopt and follow eating habits that are nourishing and fulfilling.

Can a Healthy Lifestyle Prevent IBD?

Adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle may prevent inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to findings from an analysis of three prospective U.S. cohort studies, which were validated in three external European cohorts.

In the primary analysis, maintaining low modifiable risk scores — based on risk factors including body mass index, smoking status, use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, physical activity, and daily consumption of fruit, vegetables, fiber, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and red meat — could have prevented 42.9{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of Crohn’s disease cases and 44.4{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of ulcerative colitis cases, reported Hamed Khalili, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues.

Moreover, adherence to a healthy lifestyle could have prevented 61.1{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of Crohn’s disease cases and 42.2{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of ulcerative colitis cases, they noted in Gut.

“We were surprised by the proportion of cases that could have been prevented through lifestyle modifications,” Khalili told MedPage Today. “One reason for this finding may be that our population was older and therefore most of our cases of IBD happened in older adults.”

“We know that lifestyle and environmental factors play a bigger role in the development of IBD in this population as compared to those who are diagnosed with disease earlier in life,” he added.

These findings from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), the NHS II, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) were largely validated in three external European cohorts — the Swedish Mammography Cohort, Cohort of Swedish Men, and the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

Looking at cases of Crohn’s disease among the European validation cohorts, adhering to low-risk factors could have prevented 44{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} to 51{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of cases, while adhering to a healthy lifestyle could have prevented 49{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} to 60{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} cases. For ulcerative colitis, adherence to low-risk factors could have prevented 21{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} to 28{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of cases, while healthy lifestyle adherence could have prevented 47{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} to 56{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of cases.

For every 1-point increase in modifiable risk score, a higher risk of Crohn’s disease (P for trend<0.0001) and ulcerative colitis (P for trend=0.008) was observed, and was similar for men and women.

IBD affects about 3.1 million people in the U.S. and 1.3 million in Europe, with incidence rising globally, especially among newly industrialized countries, Khalili’s group said. IBD is associated with an annual healthcare cost of $23,000 per patient in the U.S., and there are no current strategies to prevent the development of IBD. While one approach to preventing many chronic diseases is modification of lifestyle and dietary factors, the success of adhering to such changes remains unclear.

For this study, Khalili and colleagues examined data on 72,290 participants from the NHS, 93,909 from the NHS II, and 41,871 from the HPFS. The NHS enrolled female nurses ages 30 to 55 across 11 states in 1976. NHS II assessed a slightly younger cohort of female nurses (ages 25 to 42) from 15 states starting in 1989, while the HPFS enrolled male physicians ages 40 to 75 across all states in 1986.

In order to externally validate their findings, the researchers assessed data on 40,810 participants in the Cohort of Swedish Men, 404,144 from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, and 37,275 from the Swedish Mammography Cohort.

Using participant baseline and biennial questionnaires that assessed lifestyle factors, anthropomorphic data, and medical history, Khalili and colleagues developed modifiable risk scores ranging from 0 to 6 for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, with higher scores indicating more risk factors. Healthy lifestyle scores ranging from 0 to 9 were also developed, based on recommendations from the American Heart Association and other organizations, with higher scores indicating a healthier lifestyle.

A healthy lifestyle included never smoking, a BMI between 18.5 and 25, and engaging in physical activity of at least 7.5 metabolic equivalent of task-hours per week, in addition to consuming less than half a serving of red meat per day, at least eight daily servings of fruit/vegetables, at least half a serving of nuts or seeds per day, at least two servings of fish per week, at least 25 g of daily fiber, and a maximum of one daily alcoholic beverage for women and two for men.

Across 5,117,021 person-years of follow-up, 346 cases of Crohn’s disease and 456 cases of ulcerative colitis were reported.

On falsification analysis, adherence to low-risk factors for Crohn’s disease could have also prevented 32.3{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of cases of rheumatoid arthritis, 13.3{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of cases of colorectal cancer, and 14{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of cases of cardiovascular disease, though this was not the case for ulcerative colitis.

“This is largely due to differences in strength of associations and prevalence of risk factors, and presence of other modifiable risk factors such as alcohol and medications or supplements which are strongly associated with these other conditions,” Khalili and colleagues suggested.

They acknowledged that younger-onset IBD was under-represented in their study, since the mean age of the cohort (about 45) was higher than the usual age at onset of IBD. In addition, data on other modifiable risk factors such as stress were not explored, and high-risk individuals were not assessed.

Zaina Hamza is a staff writer for MedPage Today, covering Gastroenterology and Infectious disease. She is based in Chicago.

Disclosures

This study was primarily supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Khalili reported support from the American College of Gastroenterology Senior Research Award and the Beker Foundation, as well as consulting fees from AbbVie and Takeda, and grant funding from Pfizer and Takeda.

Co-authors also reported multiple relationships with industry.

Serena Williams Launches New Lifestyle Brand ‘Will Perform’

Tennis champion, Serena Williams, enters her up coming chapter with a new way of living manufacturer of general performance-treatment items intended to redefine and ritualize self-care. She has teamed up with two CPG veterans to launch Will Perform, a line of clean up, cruelty-no cost topical ache reduction and every day muscle treatment remedies developed to reimagine recovery – as equally a notion and a group. Williams’ co-founders are Hank Mercier, a seasoned CPG govt and Will Perform’s CEO, and Eric Ryan, the serial entrepreneur guiding the eco-friendly home brand name system, nourishment model OLLY and To start with Aid brand Welly.

Will Execute General public Gain Corporation is an active life-style recovery brand name to help all people to conduct their finest. With Williams at the helm, the model redefines restoration as functionality care by way of a fashionable acquire on topical ache aid and one of a kind day-to-day and nightly muscle recovery methods.

With an reliable and inclusive issue of perspective, and a lineup of thoughtfully created, clear, cruelty-absolutely free merchandise, Will Conduct aims to make a restoration a welcomed ritual in our each day daily life so we can stay lively and healthier.

And, yes, the life-style model is named soon after the tennis star. “Once we commenced to examination the names, and I saw the phrase will, it was best due to the fact it is a homage to my past identify Williams, and it will get the job done. The item will perform, and you will do greater,” Williams suggests to ESSENCE.

The launch assortment involves five goods, spanning four types: WILL Decrease, WILL Great, WILL Rest, and WILL Soothe. The “relieve” and “cool” products and solutions give ache aid, although the soothe and relaxation items present everyday skin and muscle mass treatment. When acquiring the products and solutions, Williams kept a present-day outlook top of head. “I felt much more want to have a present day tactic to ache reduction and muscle care. And pretty frankly, I could not come across the goods I appreciated and desired on the market. So, if we concentrate on a class like this, it could support folks get well. I needed to make that distinction of, like, if this performs for me as somebody carrying out on a extremely large amount every working day, how significantly far more would it function on other folks?” she claims.

The distinctive lineup of products intends to elevate the current recovery group market place by bridging the gap among general performance and self-treatment in everyday life. In accordance to Williams, recovery is a critical component of self-care. “It’s critical simply because when you see the term restoration, you really should feel of it as a ritual or a day by day routine. It should not be something you embrace when you get older. Restoration need to be a little something you get started executing when you are younger. So when you do get more mature, it’s simpler,” she suggests.

Williams notes that her goods are established from her expertise with being pissed off by restoration goods. “When actively playing matches, I had to apply the products myself. I wished to generate a line that would have a superior software. Acquiring an software where by you don’t have to rub it in is so helpful,” she reveals.

In conceptualizing and acquiring Will Conduct, she drew on the working experience of her almost three-decade-very long athletic vocation to add a little something to the class that she understood to start with-hand was underrepresented, setting up with how the group has been promoted to certain demographics. Williams and the staff deliberately include things like millennial and Gen-Z teams as their wanted viewers. “Recovery goods have been framed in the earlier for specified ages. I want to adjust that. We must all embrace particular care and skincare. And now, with Will Carry out, you can get started to retreat and recuperate, regardless of whether it is a suffering aid or muscle mass treatment, it is these types of an important aspect of functionality,” she claims.

Williams and the staff regarded a lengthy checklist of components, together with system efficacy, substances, design, software, and scent, to create a line of items that folks can enjoy as element of an day-to-day schedule. By carrying out so, Will Perform is reframing restoration as overall performance care, a refined but important change that Williams hopes will invite athletes and anybody with an active way of living to adopt the exercise to ensure lively and nutritious life and, most importantly, self-treatment.

As significantly as her self-treatment regimen, Williams is continually doing the job on and refining it. “I feel 1 point that moms often battle with is self-care. At the conclude of the night, I have a lot more time for myself, and I conclude up utilizing Will Accomplish item simply because it has magnesium in it, which assists reduce, which tends to make me come to feel additional peaceful, enabling me to get a great night’s slumber, but I have to have to go and commit a day at the spa. That would be nice.”

Will Perform launches currently on the brand’s web site and at Target and Concentrate on.com commencing December 18th.

Netflix psychiatrist Phil Stutz says 85{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of early therapy gains are down to lifestyle changes. Is he right?

Jonah Hill’s Netflix documentary, Stutz, is an insightful journey into the mind of his therapist, renowned psychiatrist Phil Stutz. Hill delves into Stutz’ model of treatment, creatively using visual depictions of essential ideas and “equipment” drawn by Stutz himself.

This model is established on one’s romance with their physical entire body. When he’s discussing the relevance of wellness behaviours like training, diet regime and snooze, Stutz estimates 85{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of the initial gains to somebody with mental wellness issues commencing therapy can occur from focusing on these “lifestyle” things. Amazed, Hill suggests in the movie:

When I was a kid, physical exercise and diet program was framed to me in like, ‘there’s a thing improper with how you look’. But in no way at the time was exercise or diet program propositioned to me in terms of psychological wellbeing. I just wish that was offered to folks in another way. Mainly because for me, that caused a lot of troubles.

So, is Stutz right?

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You have received a pal: young people today aid just about every other with their psychological overall health for 3.5 hours just about every week

What does the newest proof inform us?

Although the 85{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} determine is debatable, there is now superior evidence therapies concentrating on way of living variables can be a vital component of treating psychiatric circumstances these types of as melancholy. A latest meta-investigation (which brings jointly effects from various study studies) demonstrates training may well be as powerful as anti-depressant medication for depression.

Our very own investigation demonstrates a modified Mediterranean diet program can significantly improve signs or symptoms and performing of people today dwelling with average to extreme despair.

The psychological well being gains of these interventions manifest impartial of weight decline, can be utilized in mix with medicines (such as antidepressants or antipsychotics) and are charge-helpful mainly because of societal gains this kind of elevated place of work productivity.

And the added benefits of these methods can be be professional fairly quickly, with effects obvious in as little as a few weeks.

Lifestyle modifications can reduce the threat of frequent conditions this kind of as coronary heart condition and diabetes, which lead to the 20-12 months lifetime expectancy gap for these dealing with psychological sickness.

The toughness of the proof means it has now been cited in vital plan paperwork, advocacy and clinical follow tips in Europe and the United Kingdom.

The principal organisation symbolizing the professional medical specialty of psychiatry, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College or university of Psychiatrists, now suggests lifestyle modification should be considered the initial phase in dealing with despair.

Inspite of all of this, this tactic has not been comprehensively taken up by mainstream psychological health and fitness-treatment providers in Australia or in the placing of the Stutz documentary, the United States.

https://www.youtube.com/look at?v=UKCmefQdplI

‘You have to give anyone the feeling they can improve appropriate now.’

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Supporting clinicians

The use of way of living therapies is a moderately new space to psychiatry in contrast to other therapies these types of as antidepressant treatment or talk therapy with psychologists. Our randomised handle trial displaying diet can be a cure strategy for depression stated formerly was the first of its kind and was only done in 2017.

There are a variety of barriers to its translation in psychological well being treatment: teaching, funding, obtain and variability in quality provided the historic absence of suggestions.

In Oct, we released the initially worldwide guidelines that can be applied across any medical environment – from basic procedures, to specialist mental wellness treatment and by dietitians – in any state. They go over 9 established and rising life style “pillars” to assist full-of-person care. These are:

1. actual physical action and workout – improving upon cardio and resistance coaching, yoga, decreasing sedentary behaviours

2. leisure tactics – these as guided breathing physical exercises

3. partaking (or re-participating) with employment or volunteering

4. receiving adequate slumber

5. mindfulness-dependent therapies and worry administration (which includes coping abilities)

6. wholesome eating plan that involves consumption of a vast variety of plant-centered complete foods and minimises very processed food items

7. quitting smoking

8. strengthening social connections

9. interaction with character – in green areas these as forests and parks, and blue areas like the ocean or creeks and rivers.

Netflix psychiatrist Phil Stutz says 85{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of early therapy gains are down to lifestyle changes. Is he right? — Training and partaking with all-natural spaces can produce mental well being advancements.
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Clinicians can shape their method in 4 vital approaches:

enhance way of life and social assessments. Our recommendations contain a list of recommended tools to capture alterations in a patient’s overall health behaviours throughout the program of therapy as effectively as social screening equipment to enable recognize their socioeconomic backdrop (these types of as stable housing, accessibility to means)
get input from allied health specialists (this kind of as dietitians or workout physiologists), patients’ assistance networks such as other well being pros, local community, loved ones, carers and friends. It is important to know, for case in point, how someone’s family or neighbourhood may possibly condition their skill to give up using tobacco
detect behavioural modify strategies. Just about every personal will have a various frame of mind in phrases of their openness to transforming their behaviours. Clinicians can use the rules to determine the finest procedures for distinct people today
assist minimize stigma and/or assumptions that life-style is a decision. As a substitute, understand and describe to individuals how personal, social and professional components can perform a function and make it tougher for them to make modifications. This can make it feel a lot less like a private accountability or fault and enable navigate real looking improvements.

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Pharmacists could support suppress the psychological well being crisis – but they require much more schooling

Even now additional to comprehend

Though these pointers and resources are an crucial very first stage, there are important concerns in this industry that stay unanswered.

These involve how to very best personalise therapies utilizing a person’s distinctive physiology, genetics, demographics, qualifications and person choices.

We will need to take a look at how this tactic compares to gold-normal care these as psychotherapy, in particular for far more intense despair. We are presently screening this problem and recruiting participants for a countrywide trial.

It is crucial to notice medicine and other therapies can participate in an important purpose in mental health and fitness therapy. Drugs should really not be ceased or changed with no consulting a clinical specialist. We have also established a study course for wellness specialists who want further assistance.

For now, our rules give a way for wellness industry experts to start addressing Jonah Hill’s issue – that life style variables should be introduced to men and women as crucial to their psychological health.

If this short article has lifted challenges for you, or if you are worried about anyone you know, simply call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Leveraging consumer brands to bring healthy lifestyle options to seniors

At one time, the business of healthcare might have seemed impenetrable to outsiders. If an organization wasn’t directly connected to medicine, research, pharmaceuticals, health insurance and the like, there was no place for it. However, as stakeholders have recognized the assets those outside of the field can contribute, there has been a surge of collaborations and integrations that strengthen healthcare delivery, quality and outcomes.

For example, while physicians have long touted the benefits of physical activity, health plans also understand the value of including gym memberships or fitness programs as a benefit. Today, senior fitness programs are a popular benefit for Medicare Advantage enrollees and plans, offering members a cost-effective way to improve and maintain their health. SilverSneakers®, the leading fitness program for older adults, promotes greater health engagement and accountability through regular exercise and social opportunities, and has been proven to improve overall health and lower healthcare costs.

Leveraging consumer brands

In recent years, recognizable, consumer-facing brands have entered the fold as both consumers and healthcare experts have recognized a need for opportunities for healthcare services to be more integrated in typical consumer experiences. Today, meal delivery services, ride-sharing services, retailers and tech brands are seeking new ways to reach consumers with solutions to improve their health and well-being. It’s no secret that many consumers use fitness and healthcare apps, but it may be surprising that leading technology companies are also recognizing the potential to support the senior population through virtual and mobile solutions.

SilverSneakers understands the potential to leverage technology and recognizable consumer brands to enhance its own offerings. SilverSneakers recently announced that, starting in 2023, members in participating health plans are eligible for an Apple Fitness+ subscription at no additional cost. With a Fitness+ subscription, these SilverSneakers members will have access to 3,000-plus workouts and meditations, which will join SilverSneakers’ virtual suite of live and on-demand fitness and holistic health offerings, interest-based social connection opportunities, mental enrichment, personalized member content and a network of up to 22,000 fitness locations. The result is more opportunities for more members to experience the mental and physical benefits of exercise and meditation.

Apple Fitness+ enables SilverSneakers members to move how they want, where they want, using familiar technology. They can choose from workouts and meditations ranging from 5 to 45 minutes across 11 workout types, including dance, Pilates, strength and yoga, along with video and audio guided meditations to support cognitive health and stress relief. There are also workout programs with custom content, including Workouts for Older Adults, which helps users stay active at any age with a focus on strength, flexibility, balance, coordination and mobility.

The power of collaboration

So, as SilverSneakers becomes a more comprehensive program through its latest offering of Apple Fitness+, a brand that people know and love, it becomes even more enticing to health plans and their members, with greater potential to improve senior health. But what’s the benefit for Apple Fitness+? SilverSneakers has 18 million eligible members nationwide. With 10,000 people turning 65 every day, today’s seniors expect tech-enabled health options for everything from doctors’ appointments to wellness. Apple Fitness+ is committed to being the world’s most inclusive fitness subscription service, recognizing that today’s older adults are active and connected.

Fitness+ is designed to be welcoming and inclusive to all and to help users live a healthier day – no matter where they are on their fitness journey. The workouts and meditations are led by a diverse team of trainers, curated for a range of abilities, skill levels, ages and interests. Every Fitness+ studio workout includes modifications to accommodate all fitness levels, along with options for closed captioning and subtitles in six languages.

SilverSneakers has been a leader in the senior wellness space for 30 years and understands the unique needs and fitness preferences of older adults. Through this new offering, it is furthering its commitment to accessible fitness for seniors. SilverSneakers is the only senior fitness program that will offer Fitness+ in January through select Medicare Advantage plans.

While the exclusivity of healthcare may have served it well at one time, today, harnessing the strengths of disparate entities has the power for transformation. In this case, by linking two brands that are respected in their categories and have a shared vision, fitness can be a more approachable, accessible and fun pursuit for seniors. And when seniors embrace opportunities to be more physically and mentally well, everyone wins.

To learn more about SilverSneakers, visit www.tivityhealth.com/brands/silversneakers/.

Sponsored by

At Tivity Health, we help adults improve their health and support them on life’s journey by providing access to in-person and virtual physical activity, social, and mental enrichment programs. Our suite of services supports health plans nationwide as they seek to reduce costs and improve health outcomes. At Tivity Health, we deliver the resources members need to live healthier, happier, more connected lives. Learn more at www.tivityhealth.com.

Don’t think that just because you live a healthy lifestyle you are immune to lung cancer.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Poor air quality obscures the Oquirrh Mountains and downtown Salt Lake City, as seen from the University of Utah on Friday, Dec. 3, 2021.

By Angela Deneris and Cordelia Schaffer | Special to The Tribune

| Dec. 1, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

We are two women with one too many things in common. We both lived our adult lives in Salt Lake City, are nurses, college professors, were never exposed to radon or occupational hazards and are non-smokers. We shared the mistaken belief that our healthy lifestyles would protect us from serious diseases.

The one-too-many things we have in common is that we were both discovered to have advanced non-small cell lung cancer caused by a common genetic mutation activated by Salt Lake valley air pollution.

Even though we were/are college of nursing professors and read medical literature, neither one of us realized breathing polluted air put us at higher risk for lung cancer, according to the CDC. We blithely assumed non-smokers didn’t get lung cancer. Too late we learned many studies have shown long-term air pollution exposure is toxic enough to cause lung cancer in people like us.

We learned the hard way that, in most cases, lung cancer can remain early stage and asymptomatic for many years and solid tumors usually take decades to develop. But in 2013 lung cancer in an 8-year-old girl in China, attributable to air pollution, set off alarm bells throughout the world.

In 2019, 300,000 lung cancer deaths globally were linked to exposure to outdoor air pollution. According to the CDC, up to 20{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of lung cancers occur in non-smokers.

We learned our ignorance isn’t uncommon. We were both initially worked up by our family physicians for other possible reasons for our fatigue, persistent cough and shortness of breath with exercise, delaying our diagnoses and treatment. This is typical of lung cancer, the number one cancer killer in the U.S.

Because non-smokers aren’t screened for lung cancer, and the early-stage symptoms are subtle and self-reported, it isn’t usually diagnosed until Stage III or IV, when it is much more difficult to treat, and survival is low — exactly our situation. Too late we also learned that air pollution also increases the size and grade of lung cancers, and even impacts our ability to survive by decreasing the effectiveness of our treatment and by making us more susceptible to recurrence.

Fortunately for us, there is an oral chemotherapy medication we take that can extend our lives by a few years, but this isn’t the way we expected to live them, with debilitating symptoms, extensive medicine-generated side effects and very expensive medical costs.

The World Health Organization has declared air pollution a leading cause of cancer, and there is no safe level of air pollution, just like there is no safe number of cigarettes a person can smoke. But air pollution also causes a list of other diseases nearly as long as those from smoking — virtually every type of lung disease, heart and blood vessel diseases, impaired fetal development, chromosomal damage, pregnancy complications, brain and neurologic disorders like strokes and Alzheimer’s, type II diabetes, accelerated aging and premature death.

We share our stories in the hope you and your health care providers won’t wait until it is too late to learn more about the negative consequences of chronic exposure to air pollution. Lung cancer is a real possibility, and it shouldn’t be considered only after everything else has been ruled out. It is only one of many poor health outcomes that needs to be considered when symptoms first appear in non-smoking patients.

We also issue a call to arms for all who live in this beautiful state to work with our elected officials to change public policy and to fight against proposals that will increase air pollution, such as the inland port and water rights causing Great Salt Lake to become a dry, toxic dust generating wasteland. We must advocate for healthier air to protect ourselves and those who come after us, and an end to public policy that benefits the few at the expense of the many.

Behind every abstract statistic on the health hazards of air pollution is a human face — someone’s spouse, mother, father, grandparent, brother, sister or newborn baby — someone who was denied a long, healthy life simply because of the air they breathed. We hope hearing our stories and seeing our faces can lead to fewer stories like ours.

Angela Deneris, Ph.D., CNM, FACNM, is a professor, clinical emeritus, at the University of Utah College of Nursing, was a practicing nurse-midwife for 40 years and faculty in the Nurse-Midwifery and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner Program for 30 years, retired and resides in Sugar House.

Cordelia Schaffer, RN, MSN, CHPN, has been a nurse educator at Westminster College since 2008. She has worked in health care since 1985, specializing in hospice, and resides near Rose Park.