If you want to be really fully free of the plague of cancer, we must teach our children and their children to adopt a healthy life style and an activist mentality.

If the following suggestions seem overwhelming, narrow them down as much as needed to make them practical for you. Do what you can. Then try a step-by-step, who knows?

Here are my seven habits of successful health risk managers:

1. Wear Seat belts: This won’t prevent you from getting cancer, but we should honor life and body parts; they are still not replaceable. Use helmets and all the pads designed to protect your body when you enjoy a sports or hobby.

2. Stop smoking, stop drinking alcohol:  I have not wasted much time so far in this no-brainer preventative measure. Do not ingest or inject any substance that will deter your body’s capabilities. The only exception could be a small glass of red wine with lunch or dinner. This amount can have beneficial effects.

3. Exercise:  Use your body to its maximum potential. It will give you strength and agility into your retirement years. Plus, exercise diminishes the incidence of the most common cancers.

4. Forget the standard American diet:  Consume only the best foods.  Follow recommended holistic anti-cancer dietary suggestions. Many studies substantiate the preventative and curative possibilities of a good diet. Remember to set reachable goals. You only live once. Demand organically grown food. Eat only free range meat if you eat meat. Avoid processed and precooked foods. Supplement your nutrition with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phytochemicals and fiber:  Due to pollution and over use of the land, even organically grown foods do not have all nutrients our bodies need for optimal performance.

5. Participate in making the future better:  Becoming activist for change. Your personal contribution, no matter how small, makes an anonymous difference. Put pressure on government to stop protecting an industry that is poisoning us. And with your dollars, support businesses to provide good, wholesome food. In order for our air and everything else our bodies need to become cleaner, we need to participate actively in making constructive changes in our environment. Let us leave a better world for our next generation.

6. Have an annual or semiannual physical:  Take advantage of the information you receive, and resolve any medical issue in the most sensible and natural way.
7. Get Medical Insurance:  Medical insurance is extremely valuable for acute-care. Evaluate all different policies and information, digested and then take action. Some policies might even cover complimentary and preventative treatments.