Defying Disease Heart disease runs in my family. I'm either going to get it or I'm not. There's nothing I can really do about it." Sound familiar? Maybe heart disease isn't your worry. Maybe it's some other disease of "aging," like diabetes, cancer, or osteoporosis. Whatever the illness, it's easy to imagine it waiting like an unavoidable chasm in the road ahead. Genetics, as we know, are the blueprints of our lives. We believe they hold our fate, in the same way the ancients believed that fate was written in the stars. Well, here's a news flash: Your fate isn't in the stars, and it isn't in your genes. You hold it in your very own hands. "Certainly some diseases might have a genetic component, but the evidence clearly shows that other environmental issues like lifestyle play a key role," says Julie Buring, Sc.D., professor of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "Whether we develop a condition like cancer or heart disease, for example, is not something that's totally out of our control. There are many things we can do to reduce our risk." What's more, it's never too late to make positive changes in your lifestyle even if you're a fifty something smoker who's overweight. "You may think that you should have made healthier choices when you were a teenager and it's true that the earlier you do it the better but we've found that even when elderly people quit smoking or start exercising it greatly benefits their overall health," Dr. Buring says. The average 40 year old woman still has another 40 years of life to look forward to. So start making healthy changes now, and you'll feel as good or even better throughout the second half of your life as you felt through the first. Anti Aging Anti Aging Generation| Anti Aging Health Strategy| Anti Aging for Women| Take a Bite Out of Aging| Check the Index| Aim Low| Fat Factor| The Zobra Diet| Bulf Of Long Life| What about Meat?| Get the Protein, Forgo the Fat| The Taxic Avengers| Great Ways to Ambush Radicals| Going Vegetarian Sparked Her Youth| Is That a Toxin in My "Soup"?| Put Your Diet into Rehab| Little Bean, Big Benefits| Sneaking Soy into Your Diet| The Anti Aging Supplements| Alpha Lipoic Acid| Vitamins Minerals| Bioflavonoids| Coenzyme-Q10| Flaxseed Oil| Ginkgo| Are Harmone Supplements Safe?| Melotonin| Phoaphatidylserine| Pycnogenol| Vitamin C| Vitamin E| Aerobics| Disease-Proof Your Body| Liven Up Your Lifestyles| 12 Tips For a Better Workout| Weather Your Workout| Water| Erasing the Lines of Time| Skin Enemy Number One: The Sun| Sunscreen to the Rescue| A Sunscreen Primer| Sun Tips for Sun Junkies| Clean Up Your Act| Perfect Cleanser| Navigating Moisturizer Maze| The Care and Feeding of Youthful Skin| Special Problems of Aging Skin Cosmetic Nutrients Cosmetic Nutrients| Get Glowing with Glycolic Acid| User's guide of Glycolic Acids| Retin-A and Renova| Using Retin-A and Renova| Vitamin C: Future Youth?| Don't Get Lost at "C"| Getting the Most from C Makeups Makeup That Enhances| Foundation| Concealer| Blush| Powder| Eye Makeup| Lipstick| Winning the Battle of the Mane| Color to the Youthful| Dressed to Impress| Acting Your Age| 10 Attributes of a Youthful Mind Right Weight Getting Your Right Weight| Weighing In| Say Goodbye to Dieting| Putting Exercise into Everyday Events| Defying Disease| Disease Proof Your Lifestyle| Arthritis| Cancer| Diabetes| Heart Disease and Stroke| Osteoporosis|Keeping Your Senses Sharp|Can You Speak Little Louder?|Preventing Hearing Loss|Target Hearing Loss Early|The Eyes Have It|Buying Sunglasses|Eyes Need Exercise|The Life of Visionary Memory Memory Like an Elephant| Keeping the Brain Up and Running|Improving Your Everyday Memory| Get Organized| Living a Memory Enhancing Lifestyle Sleep Sweet Sleep and Relaxation| Turning Out the Lights, Naturally| Easing Toward Dreamland|When All Else Fails