It's hard to imagine cutting out anything as small as a half-teaspoon of anything in your daily diet would make an impact on your health as great as reducing your risk of heart attack or even death. As we've observed time and again in this space, however, making the simplest changes -- like eating foods more slowly -- can have a huge impact on your health for the positive.

That's why we're far less skeptical than some of you may be about the impact of reducing your salt intake by just a half-teaspoon, based on the results culled from the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model, a digital simulation of heart disease among adults used by scientists to predict the benefits derived from making changes to the collective diets of Americans.

Saving the lives of some 92,000 Americans and preventing nearly 100,000 heart attacks, merely by reducing one's salt intake by 3 grams isn't just the healthy thing to do (although it's comparable to the effect of quitting smoking). The projected savings to the nation's spiraling-out-of-control health care tab by reducing salt alone may save as much as $24 BILLION.

If you like to add salt liberally to your foods, this single change should be a fairly easy one to make. Making this change may be a bit tricky for some folks, however, who don't add salt to anything (that's me). For example, an average 14-ounce can of green beans contains nearly 1,300 mg of salt.

All the more reason for me and you to pay closer attention to nutritional labels, particularly the salt that hides in processed foods.

New England Journal of Medicine January 20, 2010 Free Full Text Study

EurekAlert January 20, 2010

As you know, it's virtually impossible to elude constant warnings about all the dangers associated with smoking, from very explicit labeling on cigarette packaging to public service announcements aired 24/7 on broadcast media. But it hasn't stopped folks from looking for "safer" alternatives to smoking anyway, like the e-cigarette, a product that contains, not only nicotine, but an toxic assortment of goodies, like a compound used to produce antifreeze.

You can add the hookah, a waterpipe that has been used in the Middle East and Asia for centuries and has grown in popularity among young American adults over the past decade, as equally hazardous to one's health.

Scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University and American University of Beirut launched the study to compare which delivery system -- cigarettes or hookah pipes -- exposed 31 patients between ages 18-50 to more toxic substances over two 45-minute sessions, while measuring nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in their blood.

Although the levels of nicotine at their peak didn't vary, patients were exposed to far more carbon monoxide when smoking a hookah. Compared to cigarettes, the amount of carbon monoxide found in the blood of patients at the peak waterpipe COHb level (the amount bound to red blood cells) was three times greater. Patients inhaled some 48 times more smoke when using a hookah too.

American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Vol. 37, No. 6, pp. 518-523, December 2009

ABC News December 7, 2009

EurekAlert December 2, 2009

If you've thought about curbing your smoking habit with the help of the electronic cigarette or e-cigarette -- a lithium battery-powered device that generates inhaled doses of nicotine by delivering a vaporized propylene glycol/nicotine solution -- you may want to sidestep this potentially toxic alternative, according to reports issued by the FDA.

Made overseas (primarily in China) and sold by two U.S. companies, e-cigarettes contained not only the highly addictive nicotine but -- depending on the batch -- various carcinogens, including nitrosamines, and diethylene glycol, a compound used to make antifreeze.

Although the FDA blocked e-cigarettes from being imported to the U.S. in March, kits ranging from $99-130 that come with a "pack" of five cartridges containing varying levels of nicotine can be purchased in stores and online. Even more alarming, cartridges come in flavors, such as bubblegum, chocolate and mint, that may attract kids and young adults looking for a "safer" alternative to smoking, the FDA says.

The status of e-cigarettes in America remains very much up in the air, with the FDA seizing shipments at its borders and Florida-based Smoking Everywhere's recent lawsuit arguing that the agency overreached by banning shipments and insisting their product be evaluated through the typical drug approval process. Meanwhile, the market for e-cigarettes has grown into a $100 million industry, according to the Electronic Cigarette Association.

The Baltimore Sun July 27, 2009

healthfinder.gov July 22, 2009

The Detroit News July 7, 2009

If you haven't done it today, pat yourself on the back for a job well done and enjoy a healthier, happier life to boot. The good news: Cancer rates are dropping in America, according to the numbers compiled by the American Cancer Society in their latest Cancer Statistics 2009 report.

Advances, treatments and prevention have saved about 650,000 lives over the past 15 years alone in America, or the population of a city the size of Washington, D.C. In the prevention arena, smoking cessation is the key factor to lower rates of cancer and continued reductions down the line.

Still, Americans can't rest on these good numbers. Experts believe it is difficult to develop new strategies to decrease cancer and treat it effectively, as evidenced by far larger drops in mortality rates among patients battling cardiovascular problems over the very same 15-year span.

Nevertheless, the following numbers compiled by the American Cancer Society are a step in the right direction:

* From 1990-2005, mortality rates among male (19.2 percent) and female (11.4 percent) cancer patients fell by double digits.

* Declines in breast cancer and colorectal cancer were responsible for drops in cancer rates among women while the incidence of colorectal, lung and prostate cancer contributed to falling rates among men.

* The survival rate over a five-year period for children diagnosed with cancer jumped to 80 percent, a whopping 22 percent improvement over rates reported in the mid 70s.

ABC News May 28, 2009

Reuters May 27, 2009