Test Your Foot Fitness

Spotting early signs of foot problems can prevent you from being sidelined. Give your feet this test, created with Cherise Dyal,MD, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

SKIN

1. Do your feet have blisters or red spots? Buy shoes in a large enough size and width, and watch for bothersome seams inside.

FOOT CARE

2. Are your toenails trimmed straight across? This will prevent ingrown nails.

3. Do you push back your cuticles? Healthy ones offer protection from bacteria and infection, but they must be kept from overgrowing.

4. Do you use a pumice stone regularly? This will help prevent painful buildup of dead skin and calluses and allow healthy skin underneath to get moisture.

CIRCULATION

5. Are your toes pink? Toes that look red, purple or blue may indicate an infection, injury, or blood flow problem. See your doctor immediately for a diagnosis.

6. Press down on the nail of your big toe until the color blanches, then let go. How long does it take for the color to return? If it takes more than 5 seconds, you may have a circulation problem. Talk to your doctor.

SENSATION

7. Run a pencil eraser along the top, bottom, and sides of your feet. Does it feel the same in all four sides? (The bottoms may tickle.) Poor sensation could be a sign of diabetes or nerve injury and should be evaluated by a doctor.

FLEXIBILITY

8. Can you pick up a small disk towel and a marble with your toes? If not, you can improve flexibility by massaging your feet and toes gently every day. Also, practice doing the towel and marble pickups daily.

Seven Tips to a Healthy You

If it's optimum health you want. Follow these rules and go for it!

1. Lose weight if you need to.

Make this a huge health priority. Every extra pound puts you at a greater risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and arthritis.

2. Do not sit around.

Get 45 minutes of activity a day if you are trying to lose weight or keep it off - and that includes just about every adult.

3. Eat tons of fruits and vegetables.

We wish we could go to a cancer research conference and see all the scientists with lunch platesHealthy diet suggestioneaped with vegetables and fruits. Eat nine servings a day - it's easier than you think!

4. Get more good fats.

That means monounsaturated fats in olive oil, nuts, and peanut butter, and omega- 3 fats in canola oil, flaxseed, and fatty fish such as salmon. Avoid saturated fat (as in cheeseburgers!).

5. Cut way back on sugar.

Every day, we eat an average of 21 teaspoons of added sugars. For starters, trade your soft drinks for iced tea, plain or sweetened with just a touch of honey.

6. Switch to whole grains now - just do it!

Evidence is mounting that we're eating far too much refined starch (white flour foods) for our own good. For example, women who eat mostly "white bread" diets have more breast cancer and diabetes.

7. If you drink alcohol, drink only a little.

You know the rule about one drink a day for women, two drinks for men? Even that may be too much. A study of more than 40,000 qdults found that people with lowest risk of dying were women who averaged less than one drink a day and men who averaged less than two drinks a day.