The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is making it easier for consumers to read food labels. With a quick stop at a website called Make Your Calories Count, we can all learn how to better decipher and truly understand the numbers we find printed on the back of food items.

The FDA interactive site, featuring a cartoon character called Labelman, provides consumers with information related to healthful diets and calorie management. There are exercises, quizzes, and a training module available for download and printing.

The program, which presents two nutrients that should be limited (saturated fat and sodium) and two that should be consumed in adequate amounts (fiber and calcium), may be just the resource we need in our pursuits of better health and disease prevention.

If you've ever visited the website My Breast Cancer Network, part of the Health Central conglomerate of health and medical information, you know the appeal of this site is its insightful navigation menu, comprised of three helpful locators -- Find, Manage, and Connect.

With a click on the Find button, you can search answers to questions, check symptoms, and locate resources. Choose Manage and you can take action, achieve goals, and resolve problems. If you wish to get advice, find support, and share your experiences, take a simple tour through the Connect community.

My Breast Cancer Network currently invites all viewers to connect with one another through a new feature: Show Us Your Chemo Style. You can simply visit this portion of the site and view photos submitted by others. Or you can submit a photo and caption of yourself, a friend, a family member. My Breast Cancer Network says it like this:

What does it mean to be confident during and after chemotherapy? Are you proud to be bald and beautiful? Does a wig, scarf or hat make sense for you and your style? We'd also love to see your new hair, as it grows back in. Share your favorite photos!

I did it -- go take a look -- and you can too.

The YSC produces a variety of educational materials which provide information on breast cancer in young women and the issues relevant to this population. Brochures: Changing the Face of Breast Cancer: Provides an overview of the YSC and its programs and outlines how, through Action, Advocacy and Awareness, the YSC works to change the face of breast cancer and increase the quality and quantity of life for all young women affected by breast cancer. Spanish version also available. YSC Educational Brochure -- "What Every Young Woman Needs to Know about Breast Cancer": Offers important information on young women and breast cancer including statistics and what a young woman should do if she feels a lump. This brochure is a resource for all young women and the members of the medical community who serve them. Spanish version also available. YSC ResourceLink Brochure -- Provides an overview of YSC's ResourceLink program, which provides peer support, information and resources to young women affected by breast cancer, their family and friends and health care professionals. Fact Sheets: YSC Fact Sheets provide basic and important information on young women and breast cancer and highlights some of the most critical issues affecting this population. The Fact Sheets give introductions to specific issues, answer the most common questions, and provide resources for further information. Fact Sheet Topics: Hereditary Breast Cancer Inflammatory Breast Cancer Young Women and Breast Cancer

DVDs/Videos:

YSC DVDs/videos are appropriate for young women at any stage of diagnosis, including those who are at increased risk but who have not been diagnosed with the disease, as well as their family members and caregivers. Medical professionals will find them informative and supportive and may want to use them as a resource for your patients and colleagues as well as place them in your medical center's resource libraries.

The Beautiful 8: Learning To Live with Advanced Breast Cancer

The YSC's newest educational DVD presents an intimate discussion among eight young women diagnosed with breast cancer. Join them on this journey filled with hope, fear, laughter, anxiety and determination to live life to the fullest. To order a copy, please send your full name and address to YWABC@youngsurvival.org or call 877-YSC-1011.

Fighting for Our Future

"Fighting for Our Future" is the only comprehensive survival guide for young women diagnosed with breast cancer, doctors, and caregivers. The Lifetime Television original documentary of the same name chronicles the lives of three young women with breast cancer and how they deal with issues such as dating and sexuality; fertility and pregnancy concerns; and mortality at a young age. It also chronicles the formation of the YSC and the movement behind young women and breast cancer.

This video also has a companion book entitled Fighting For Our Future.

You Are Not Alone

The YSC's educational video is an intimate conversation with six young women diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age. The companion resource guide, published in collaboration with the New York/Bronx division of the American Cancer Society, provides support, education, and hope for young women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Please note: a limited number of VHS tapes are available; contact info@youngsurvival.org for information.

Breast Cancer Legacy

"Breast Cancer Legacy" focuses on the role that genetics and family history play in young women affected by breast cancer. The documentary tells the story of four young women and their families while illustrating the psychological, medical, ethical and interpersonal issues these women face as they confront their family histories of cancer and make life-altering decisions about their futures.

In addition to the film, the YSC has created a fact sheet on hereditary breast cancer in conjunction with FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered,a non profit organization focused on education of risk and family history of breast cancer.

Publications

Fighting for Our Future

The companion book to the film "Fighting For Our Future" is available from the YSC and in bookstores. "Fighting for Our Future" is the only comprehensive survival guide for young women diagnosed with breast cancer, doctors, and caregivers. The Lifetime Television original documentary of the same name chronicles the lives of young women with breast cancer and how they deal with issues such as dating and sexuality; fertility and pregnancy concerns; and mortality at a young age.

Young Perspective Newsletter

Our informative newsletter contains updates on how the YSC is carrying out its mission of improving the quality and quantity of life for young women affected by breast cancer through action, advocacy and awareness.

There is something to be said for the power of prayer. On the morning the lump in my breast was removed, a friend rallied more than 80 friends from our local MOMS Club to say a prayer for me -- at the exact time I was wheeled into an operating room. I know nothing of the prayer they said for me, but I do know I emerged from surgery with my breast intact and with the knowledge that my cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes.

I don't know for sure what role prayer played in my good fortune -- but I don't discount that it is in some way responsible for the fact that I am alive today.

But there are other obvious factors responsible for my survival -- like chemotherapy, radiation, physical therapy, targeted drug therapy, and counseling. So I don't think prayer alone saved me. I think it took a balance of varied forces to save my life -- a balance one Ohio man was not able to achieve.

The children of Darrell Perry are filing suit against their aunt, Darlene Bishop -- Perry's sister and an evangelical preacher -- who claims both she and Perry were cured of cancer through prayer.

Perry was not cured and died a year and a half ago from throat cancer. And Bishop now reveals she was never diagnosed with breast cancer -- like she claimed at one time -- but was merely worried she may have had the disease. Yet the message in her book Your Life Follows Your Words speaks loud and clear in its message -- that prayer can cure cancer.

Perry's children says their aunt is lying and exploiting their father for her own financial gain. They have filed two suits -- one accusing her of mismanaging and misusing Perry's estate and the other alleging wrongful death for convincing Perry to pray rather than seek medical help.

It can be a bit overwhelming and scary to read all the side effects on the sheet that the pharmacist gives with the medicine that has been prescribed by your physician. There always seems to be so many side effects that CAN happen. The thing is that most of the side effects are not life threatening and are mild. Some medications however do have severe side effects that if you are not aware of can prove to be deadly. This shouldn't happen of course if you are listening to what your doctor says and are being monitored closely.

It is important to read all the side effect information yourself and know what to look out for. In case something does happen that is abnormal, you will notice it sooner than later, and you can call or see your physician immediately.

In a report issued Tuesday, the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that 700,000 people a year, especially the elderly, experience adverse drug events that lead to emergency room visits. In patients 65 or older, one-third of the drug reactions were caused by three medicines: Coumadin, a blood thinner, insulin and Digoxin, a heart medication.

The important thing to remember is to ask about any other drugs you are taking and the interactions with the newly prescribed drug. The report I saw on this issue mentioned that about 30 percent of us are taking around five pills every day.

So ask the nurse at the doctors office to explain the side effects and you can also talk to your pharmacist about the drug. I went and got a prescription filled the other day and the pharmacist asked me if I had any questions about that specific drug. I didn't this time, but I liked that he asked.

UCLA researchers report that doctors are doing an inadequate job at communicating vital information to the patient about the medications they are prescribing. Open communication must be a part of the doctor/patient relationship. This open communication can most often avoid prescription drug misuses, overdoses and underuse.

A report released in 2004 by the National Center on Health Statistics said that almost half of Americans regularly take at least one prescription drug. Half of older patients take at least three or more each day. That is a lot of us. I myself take three separate medications everyday and I'm only 35. I know what they are and I know what they do and I also know their risks and side effects. I also have a pharmacist that always asks if I have any questions about the medication, which I like. I never ask any questions because I already asked my doctors and researched on the internet and found out what I needed to know. Its not that I just want to know what is going inside my body, I am interested in what the drugs actually do. How they work and why they work. It fascinates me so I like to know all the details.

Of course you don't have to be like me and want to know all the details but you should know what your taking and why. Mistakes can be made and you are your number one advocate. Its great to trust your doctor. I completely trust my oncologist but I still ask questions. Thousands of deaths are caused each year because of misuse of prescription drugs.

What you need to know according to the recommendations from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which is the federal agency charged with improving health care quality, is that all patients should be given basic information about the drugs that are being prescribed for them. You can find the list of questions here to ask your doctor.

Cigarettes remain the only legal product that kills half of its regular users when consumed as intended by the manufacturer. -- World Health Organization

Tobacco: deadly in any form or disguise is the theme of the World Health Organization, WHO, World No Tobacco Day. According to WHO, the variety of tobacco products manufactured and marketed worldwide continues to expand. For example, new types of flavored, natural or organic and roll-your-own cigarettes are often advertised and marketed with names and packaging that might mislead consumers into believing that they are less dangerous than conventional cigarettes.

The youth continue to be targeted by advertising and products that are deceptive and meant to conceal the fact that tobacco is being used. Some tobacco products are being made to look like candy. One of the products contains compressed tobacco powder along with sweeteners, mint and other flavorings, and resembles a brand of popular breath mints. While the tobacco industry continues to deny their intent is to target the young, anti-tobacco activists point to tobacco products that are flavored with sweeteners to taste like candy and come in chewing gum-style packaging. You know, it is a common tactic of the guilty to proclaim innocence. But just saying it isn't so doesn't work because the eyes don't lie. If it looks like a duck -- and walks like a duck -- it's a duck. Deception is the tobacco industry's duck. For more information, visit WHO's World No Tobacco Day.