Healthy living

Screen: All adults should get blood pressure tests from their physicians, but there's no evidence to recommend the tests for children and teens, a health panel says.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's recommendations are published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

High blood pressure is responsible for more than a third of cardiovascular problems like heart attack or stroke and nearly a fourth of all premature deaths. One in three American adults don't know they have high blood pressure.

Drug and behavioral therapies work to lower blood pressure, but the task force didn't find any correlation between a treatment's ability to lower blood pressure and a reduction in cardiovascular events.

The task force did not say how often adults should be screened for high blood pressure. Nor did it suggest whether only adults with other risk factors should be screened.

Tips

Crave: Trying to give up cigarettes? Try these tips for beating nicotine cravings from the American Cancer Society:

• For the first few days after quitting, spend your free time in places where smoking is prohibited - museums, churches, theaters.

• Get plenty of fluids.

• Don't drink alcohol, coffee or other beverages you associate with smoking.

• Stay away from people, situations and places that remind you of smoking.

• Take deep rhythmic breaths to relax.

• Anticipate future stress and think of healthy habits that can substitute smoking.

• Eat several small meals throughout the day to keep blood sugar level and prevent the urge for nicotine.

Calendar

Risks: The Wellness Community will offer a free program to teach participants about genetic history and predisposition to certain diseases at 11 a.m. Saturday at 4918 Cooper Road. Jennifer Gamm, a genetics counselor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, will present the program. Information: Bonnie Crawford, 791-4060.

Kid stuff: The Child Wellness Fair opens Saturday and Sunday at the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center, downtown. Wellness experts will offer more than 40 mini health lectures on asthma, international adoption, nutrition, breastfeeding and other topics. Plenty of games and activities will be offered. Admission $5 for adults, $3 children. Information: 241-1879 or www.childwellnessfair.com.

Learn: The Health Alliance will present Trials and Triumphs, an educational program on cancer clinical trials, at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday at the Drake Center, 151 W. Galbraith Road. Free. Registration required at (888) 227-6446.

Shelf help

Stretch: Teach Yourself Visually: Yoga (Wiley; $24.95) by maranGraphics with Colleen Tiltman offers step-by-step instructions and pictures for a variety of yoga poses.

Contact Peggy O'Farrell by phone, 768-8510; fax, 768-8330, or e-mail pofarrell@enquirer.com