I decided that for National Women’s Health Week I wanted to focus on things you can do to prevent illness and stay healthy. Earlier I talked about exercising and eating healthy foods. Today I want to write about the things you shouldn’t do if you want to stay healthy.

An obvious one, and one that I’ve talked about here a number of times - is not smoking. Its extremely addictive, really bad for pregnant women and young children, can lead to heart disease, emphysema, stroke and cataracts, causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths and harms nearly every organ of the body. And that’s just the start of the Health Consequences of Smoking.

Smoking is probably one of the worst things you can do if you want a long and healthy life.

Another thing to avoid is too much alcohol. And increasingly alcoholism is becoming a bigger problem for women. New research by Richard A. Grucza, of Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri shows that “for women born after World War II, there are lower levels of abstaining from alcohol and higher levels of alcohol dependence“. Further: “the gender gap between women and men in the prevalence of alcohol dependence is narrowing”.

And of course alcohol and pregnancy and breast feeding do not go well together!

So the message for National Women’s Health Week this year: exercise regularly, eat right and avoid risky behaviors like smoking and excess drinking.