Today's Mail

In today's mail, in additon to a card from a well-wisher, which I greatly appreciated, and the usual bills, catalogs, and magazines, were two of the several health-care newsletters to which I subscribe. Whenever such newsletters arrived, I tended to read them before anything else. In fact, until a couple of months ago, it was probably fair to describe me as a bit of a health nut. I followed a Mediterranean-type diet, worked to maintain a stable weight, and, when I wasn't traveling, spent two hours at the gym almost every morning and walked around town during the day for about an hour. I visited my primary-care physician, a gastroenterologist, regularly.

One of the newsletters that arrived today was the Men's Health Advisor  from the Cleveland Clinic (Volume 11/Number 5, May 2009) (www.menshealthadvisor.com). Starting on page six is a short article entitled, "Take Steps to Reduce Your Risk of Colorectal Cancer." It is the best of its type I have seen, encompassing lifestyle practices and guidelines for colon cancer screening. The content of the article seems equally applicable to men and women.