Help me reduce my risk of injury/disease/death

We’ve all heard that humans are not great at assessing risks: big, salient events like airline crashes stick in people’s minds, so they think that airline travel is more dangerous than travelling by car, even though car travel is several orders of magnitude more dangerous.

But let’s be smart smart smart about risk. Let’s talk cost/benefit analysis. What steps can you take to reduce the risk of disease, injury, etc. that have a high payoff.

I’ll start us off:

  1. wear seatbelts.

  2. don’t smoke.

  3. wash your hands a lot.

  4. keep a fire extinguisher in your kitchen and one in your car.

  5. have a rubber bathmat in your shower: lots of people fall in the shower every year and get seriously hurt.

  6. choose your friends/significant others/spouses carefully. People tend to worry more about getting attacked by strangers, but in fact you are more likely to suffer violence from someone you know.

Any other ideas?

• Don’t have sex with people you don’t really know
• Don’t have sex with people you do really know, and just shouldn’t be having sex with
• Don’t have more than two drinks and drive
• Memorize your lawyer’s phone number
• Have a lawyer

Only drive in bad weather if absolutely necessary.

Get regular exercise.

Be a woman.

Never play drinking games.

Don’t take up any sport that regularly features in stories about death in the media e.g sky diving.

Don’t get a job in a liquor store or on a fishing boat.

Only swim with lifeguards present.

Never sound your horn or make rude gestures at other drivers.

Never stick your hand in somewhere that you can’t check what’s in there.

Only eat minced meats or sliced meats not chunks of steak etc.

Don’t deal drugs.

Unless you are an alcoholic, drink one glass of red wine daily.

Adult women should examine their breasts for lumps once a month and have a mammogram every two years – every year if they are over fifty.

Adult women should have a pap smear and a pelvic exam once a year unless surgery has made that unnecessary.

To avoid injury:
I’d recommend not drinking at all prior to getting behind the controls of a moving vehicle - car, boat, airplane, etc.

Wear a seatbelt when in a moving vehicle

Avoid distractions while operating a moving vehicle - cellphones, eating, makeup, reading of Wall Street Journal

Drive defensively, not aggressively, and obey the speed limit.

Avoid high-risk sports like sky-diving, scuba, and golf (yes, golf). If you must engage in these activities, get good training, the best equipment you can afford, and avoid thunderstorms (which can kill golfers, among other things).

Install safety devices around the home - rubber mats in showers, grab bars for bathtubs, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, etc.

Figure out an evacuation plan for your home in case of fire, and practice exiting at least once a year

Hire someone else to do dangerous chores like shoveling snow, anything requiring climbing on a ladder, etc.

To avoid disease:
Eat a healthy diet with emphasis on fruit and vegetables. Minimize processed foods

Control your weight

Avoid sick people.

Wash your hands frequently.

Take precautions against insect-borne diseases - if you live in a West Nile area, use mosquito-repellant and avoid being outside at dusk and early evening. If you live in a lyme disease area, take precautions against ticks, and examine yourself regularly for ticks. If you find one, consult a doctor about prophylactic treatment. And so on, and so forth.

If you have a chronic health condition requiring medication, take the medication faithfully and regularly.

If you are fair skinned, stay out of the sun. I don’t mean “use sunscreen”, I mean stay out of the sun, and if you can’t, wear long sleeves, hat, etc.

As you get older, get regular screening tests. The ones for women have been covered, but men need to get their prostates checked on a regular basis

For everyone - screening for colon cancer starting… what age was that again? 45, I think - earlier if it runs in your family

Also for everyone - do a monthly skin check to look for signs of skin cancer, usually a change in a mole or long-term blemish that is assymetricaly, or bleeding (meaning it crusts over, bleeds, crusts over, but never heals), of strange or black color, and is larger in diameter than a pencil eraser. Yes, even dark-skinned people need to do this - you’re not as likely to get skin cancer, but you can still get it.

Get regular checkups - how often you need this varies, but at least once every two years. This can help you catch diseases early, when they are either most treatable or most curable (and not just cancer - something like diabetes you want to catch early, too)

Know your family medical history - this can guide you about what you’re most likely to get.

To avoid death:
Well, the bad news is, you can’t avoid death. But if you follow the above, you can probably put it off as long as possible.

Ooh, that’s a good one! Us Torontontonians learned it well last year (thank you SARS). Now I wash my hands - every time - after I go out in public (especially if I’ve been on public transit) or touch money or shake hands with someone, and I haven’t gotten sick all year (knock wood). And I didn’t get the flu shot.

Honestly. Wash 'em. Use soap and warm water and be thorough about it, don’t just shake them under the tap. You won’t regret it.

Also, it feels nice, especially when it’s cold out.