Organ and Tissue Care
Maintaining healthy organs and tissue by choosing a healthy lifestyle is the best way to reduce your risk of needing a transplant.  Healthy habits include: eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, quitting smoking or not starting and minimizing your stress. 

A healthy diet includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products; lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs and nuts; and foods low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt and added sugars.  More information on choosing healthy foods can be found at www.MyPyramid.gov. 

Maintaining a healthy weight can help prevent such health problems as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  More than 60 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  To lose weight, you must eat less and move more.  Regular exercise improves heart function, lowers blood pressure and blood cholesterol and helps manage diabetes and other diseases. 

Cigarette smoking significantly increases your risk of coronary heart disease and many other diseases and health problems.  For information on quitting smoking, visit www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/smokingcessation.html.

Minimizing stress is key to a healthy body.  People who have too much stress or who have unhealthy responses to stress may be at greater risk of having coronary heart disease as well as other diseases and health complications.  For assistance coping with stress, visit www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/stress.html.

Risk Factors & Organ Failure
There are many risk factors relevant to organ failure, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke.  Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the best defense against risks to organ and tissue health. 

Talk with your physician to determine your individual risk factors and develop a personal health plan.