Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight. Over time, excessive drinking can lead to high blood pressure, various cancers, heart disease, stroke, and liver disease.

By not drinking too much, you can reduce these health risks. Check your alcohol use and make a customized plan for drinking less. To prevent chronic diseases or catch them early, visit your doctor and dentist regularly for preventive services. Oral diseases—which range from cavities and gum disease to oral cancer—cause pain and disability for millions of Americans.

To help prevent these problems, drink fluoridated water, brush with fluoride toothpaste twice a day, and floss daily. Visit your dentist at least once a year, even if you have no natural teeth or have dentures.

Insufficient sleep has been linked to the development and poor management of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and depression.

Adults should get at least 7 hours of sleep daily. If you have a family history of a chronic disease, like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or osteoporosis, you may be more likely to develop that disease yourself.

Share your family health history with your doctor, who can help you take steps to prevent these conditions or catch them early. CDC Feature: Knowing is Not Enough—Act on Your Family Health History. By making healthy behaviors part of your daily life, you can prevent conditions such as high blood pressure or obesity, which raise your risk of developing the most common and serious chronic diseases.

Learn more about healthy actions you or your loved ones can take. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to search. Español Other Languages.

How You Can Prevent Chronic Diseases. Minus Related Pages. Quit Smoking. Eat Healthy. Get Regular Physical Activity.

Avoid Drinking Too Much Alcohol. Get Screened. Take Care of Your Teeth. To do this, we follow a set of guidelines that apply to health. gov and its microsites.

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Learn, practice, and teach healthy habits. Food can carry germs. Wash hands, utensils, and surfaces often when preparing any food, especially raw meat. Always wash fruits and vegetables. Cook and keep foods at proper temperatures. One of the most important healthy habits to prevent the spread of germs is to clean your hands.

Germs can live on surfaces. Cleaning with soap and water is usually enough. However, you should disinfect your bathroom and kitchen regularly.

Disinfect other areas if someone in the house is ill. You can use an EPA certified disinfectant look for the EPA registration number on the label or a bleach solution.

If you are sick, the air that comes out of your mouth when you cough or sneeze may contain germs. Someone close by can breathe in your air, or touch a surface contaminated with your germs, and become ill.

Cough or sneeze into a tissue or your shirt sleeve-not into your hands. Remember to throw away the tissue and wash your hands. You can wear a face mask when you are sick with a cough or sneezing illness.

Learn how to put on and remove a face mask. Needles should never be shared, should only be used once, and then thrown away properly. Vaccines can prevent many infectious diseases. You should get some vaccinations in childhood , some as an adult , and some for special situations like pregnancy and travel.

Make sure you and your family are up-to-date on your vaccinations. If your regular doctor does not offer the vaccine you need, visit the Adult Immunization and Travel Clinic.

Links to other VA program offices and programs are also provided. Read more Health care resources for clinicians and others in health care are located on this page. You will find information for use in your practice and corresponding information for Veterans and the public.

NCP Highlights is an annual publication that summarizes the activities and accomplishments of the VHA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Read the latest versions of these publications. For more information on these and other VHA publications, visit the VHA Publications website.

Getting recommended preventive services, such as screening tests and immunizations, is an important part of staying healthy. Which preventive services are recommended for you depends on your age, sex, health status, and family history.

Talk with your VA health care team about the preventive services that are recommended for people like you. Gilbert Welch, a former general internist at the White River Junction VAMC, has produced several short videos that explain how the screening process works.

These videos address lead time and overdiagnosis bias, as well as several topics related to cancer screening:. Most of his work has focused on overdiagnosis in cancer screening, in particular for melanoma, cervical, breast, and prostate cancer. He is also the author of the books Should I be Tested for Cancer?

Maybe Not and Here's Why , Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health , and most recently, Less Medicine, More Health. Seven Assumptions that Drive Too Much Medical Care.

Veterans Crisis Line: Call: Press 1. Complete Directory. If you are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, visit VeteransCrisisLine. net for more resources.