A Year Of Living Healthfully

(HealthNewsDigest.com)–To make staying healthy easier, the experts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) offer free, easy-to-read information about health conditions that can affect racial and ethnic populations. These tips can help you and your family stay healthy:

Keep Your Muscles and Bones Healthy

The muscles in your body help you walk, move, lift things, pump blood through your body and breathe. They also support your bones and let you do the things you love to do. To keep bones and muscles healthy, it helps to:

• Try four types of exercise: endurance, strength, balance and flexibility. These are important for overall health and can help you make the most of your personal and family activities. However, don’t try to fit all your activity into one evening or weekend.

• Eat a balanced diet. Consume less fat and sugar and more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Get enough calcium and vitamin D every day. This helps manage your weight and provides the different nutrients that your bones and muscles need.

Manage Joint Pain

A joint is where two or more bones are joined together. If you have frequent joint pain, visit your doctor to determine the cause. If your joint pain is due to a condition like arthritis, there are ways to feel better and stay active even if you have pain:

• When you exercise, try to move all your joints. Walking or climbing stairs helps circulation, supports the joints and strengthens the muscles. Strengthened muscles help take stress off the joints, and reducing joint stress helps reduce joint pain.
• Use an ice pack on the sore area.
• See a doctor regularly. Tell the doctor if your pain is improving or worsening.

Get Information

The NIH has developed a series of free health planners that offer different tips on bones, joints, muscles and skin for each month of the year. They were created for four multicultural communities:

• African Americans
• American Indians/Alaska Natives/Native Hawaiians
• Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders
• Hispanics/Latinos (bilingual planner).

A Year of Health planners can be ordered by calling the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) Information Clearinghouse toll-free at (877) 226-4267 [TTY: (301) 565-2966] or at www.niams.nih.gov/multicultural.

The mission of the NIAMS, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’, NIH, is to support research into the causes, treatment and prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases; to train scientists to carry out this research; and to provide information and resources on conditions of the bones, joints, muscles and skin.

Learn More

For further information, call (301) 495-4484 or (877) 22-NIAMS or visit www.niams.nih.gov.

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