Plan to Exercise:

You don't need to run a marathon every day in order to get exercise. There are little ways that you can get exercise you need everyday. Here are some suggestions - choose at least one of these and do it everyday or at least once a week. I guarantee that after a couple months - if you don't get your exercise, you will MISS it!

1. Take stairs instead of elevator.
2. Park farthest away spot from store every time you go.
3. Take a 30 minute walk everyday. (This is one that I do - I love my walk, if I don't get my walk, I really feel at a loss - and I am definitely NOT an exercise fanatic, but I never miss my walking even on vacation - and I feel GREAT because of it.)
4. Take an aerobics class or a dance class. (Do you have a partner? Take ballroom dancing! Not only will you get some exercise, you will also learn a useful, fun skill.)
5. Get off subway or bus stop one stop before where you normally get off and walk rest of way home.
6. Decide to take up a sport like Tennis, Racquetball, or even join a Softball team. Check out your community athletic center or YMCA for sports that you think you might like to participate in.
7. Buy a work out video and commit to working out 20 minutes a day.
8. There are some awesome workout programs for free on internet. Here's one at Drop a Dress Size in Six Weeks. (I like free ones you can do at home, because if you're like me, you're a clutz and are embarrassed to be seen doing any of those exercises in public!)

The Right Tools:

1. Support Network -

   In first part of plan, we discussed a support network. This network may be made up of health professionals or simply a group of family or friends that you can talk to. They are positive people that will help you over rough spots.

2. Healthy Eating Guide -

   You need to know right balance of foods to eat. Use this cool food pyramid. This pyramid is taken from US Government Recommended Daily Allowances. If you join any type of Diet plan, they all have their individual ways of keeping track of your calories or nutritional intake, however, they are all similar to Food Pyramid.

3. Nutritional Counting Device -

   Make your healthy diet fun! The NutriCounter can help you keep track of your daily eating habits, it's a wonderful way to get into a routine and stay healthy. Learn more about The NutriCounter.

Several doctors say they are worried about possibility of heart attacks because many of arthritis patients taking drugs are elderly and have a higher risk of cardiovascular problems to begin with. The current debate centers on whether higher heart attack rate found in patients taking Vioxx is a result of drug’s actually causing damage in some patients or to an absence of heart-protecting benefits that Naproxen may have.

“Naproxen had a similar anti-platelet effect to aspirin,” said Dr. Eve E. Slater, senior vice president of external policy for Merck’s research labs, “and those people had fewer heart attacks.”

Neither Vioxx nor Celebrex has been shown to have same heart-protecting benefit.

Slater also said that Stover’s report was flawed and biased in favor of Pharmacia. But regulators and some doctors say they still worry that there may be more of a problem with Vioxx. And even if Vioxx and Celebrex do not damage heart, fact that they do not have heart-protecting benefits of aspirin reduces ability of companies to market them as being significantly safer than other pain relievers. Merck recommended last year that doctors involved in clinical trials of Vioxx consider prescribing low doses of aspirin to patients taking Vioxx if they are at high risk of heart attacks - although low doses of aspirin could increase risk of ulcers. Ulcers are main side effect that Vioxx and Celebrex were developed to avoid.

There have been no studies done to determine whether patients have fewer ulcers if they take low doses of aspirin with either Vioxx or Celebrex. In February Dr Maria Lourdes Villalba, at an FDA advisory meeting, stated that Merck had proved Vioxx [Rofecoxib] caused fewer serious ulcers than Naproxen. However, she also state that potential safety advantage was offset by a higher risk of heart problems,in her opinion. She reported that “Overall, there was no safety superiority of Rofecoxib over Naproxen, mainly due to an excess of serious cardiovascular events”.

Dr Villalba also stated that there had been no studies to prove Merck’s claim that Naproxen worked like aspirin in decreasing heart attacks. The FDA expressed some concern over higher rate of heart attacks with Vioxx, stating that this could be caused by drug’s ability to produce blood clots.

“There is still a tremendous benefit with these drugs” reported Dr Eve Slater of Merck.

Margot B, Writer, Web Developer Margot B has written a book and hundreds of articles, specializing in health and the environment.