In recent weeks, I’ve been asked where the term guerilla health came from. Some have asked, “isn’t that a term from warfare and revolution; what does it have to do with health?” Well, in this day and age, getting and staying healthy can feel like war. Indeed, the term is the diminutive of the Spanish word guerra “war”, or literally “little war. The strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare involve the use of a small, mobile force competing against a larger, less nimble and, perhaps, a monolithic, more powerful one.

The guerrilla organizes small units of the local population, the people who know the terrain best, who understand the culture and can effectively use the resources available. And then, quite under the radar, he or she can, in partnership with the locals, carry out the mission. My mission? Health.

In the US, there are more than 1 million preventable deaths each year from diseases like breast, lung and colorectal cancer, diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease. According to the CDC cigarette smoking alone accounts for an about 443,000 deaths, or nearly 1 of every 5 deaths, each year in the United States. When other preventable deaths are considered, automobile accidents (think seat belts), homicides (think hand guns), vaccine preventable deaths (think shots), HIV/AIDS (think condoms) among others, it doesn’t take much to imagine the mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers who could still be here with their loved ones.

The US is 30th in the world in life expectancy, dead last among developed nations in preventable deaths and we have among the highest chronic disease and obesity rates of any country. So what’s the war? The war is the sorry state of health in our country, perpetuated, in part, by the medical, food, and entertainment industry. This is a war, however, we’ve all participated in creating. We buy fast food, cigarettes, video games and other products that contribute to unhealthy lifestyles. We don’t exercise as we should. And, we look for the miracle pill, device or surgery to “fix” what ever ails us.

We are being sold what we’ve asked for. But now we’re at the point where my children’s generation is on track to have a shorter life expectancy than my generation. It’s time to act. To fight. Who are the guerillas? We are. We know our culture and our communities. We know how to take small opportunities turn them into big changes.

We can all, quietly and without fanfare, press or talk show appearances begin to change our habits. Add more fruits and vegetables (from our local farmer’s markets) to what we consume each day. Forget the Olympic style stuff you see on infomercials. You are not going to burn 800 calories in an hour unless you’re a world class athlete. But you can add one flight of stairs to your routine each day. You can get to know your neighbors and walk around the block. You can get your regular check ups and screenings. Here are common screening guidelines for cancer prevention and detection.

And, you can encourage your family and friends to do the same. The companies that currently sell unhealthy products will sell us whatever we demand. They just need to earn money for their shareholders. Even tobacco companies can sell smoking cessation products. We have the power to change what is available.

So, let’s begin, quietly, like guerilla fighters in the night, to demand healthy products, to eat better, get more exercise, to stop our unhealthy habits. We don’t have to tell anybody what we’re doing. And soon, the US won’t be last in health status among developed countries. And our mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, children and grandchildren will be around to see that.

Maybe cigarette manufacturers should include this on their pages. WARNING—this product, if used as directed, may kill you or cause you permanent disability due to lung cancer and heart disease. OK, ladies? If you’re a smoker, even if you don’t smoke while pregnant and who would, you significantly up the odds of a low birth weight baby. Now I ask you, what did the baby do to deserve this? But this can be avoided because guys, if you’re a regular smoker your sperm count could be below the amount required to conceive. If you can even get to that point: smoking has been linked to erectile dysfunction in men under 40.

So what would happen if we smokers could all stop smoking? Each year 10,000 lives would be saved. That’s thousands of grandmothers and grandfathers, hundreds of mothers/aunts and fathers/uncles and children who would have their parents around to babysit when they want to go out on a date. And, perhaps, they could make the baby that not smoking would allow them to. And don’t even think if you’ve been smoking a long time it doesn’t matter if you quit. It certainly does. According to the Surgeon General, if you’ve smoked a pack a day for 20 years and stop, then in nine months, the cilia in your lungs will regenerate, allowing your body to clean your lungs and reduce infection. One year after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker. Five years after quitting, your risk of stroke is reduced to that of a nonsmoker. Ten years after quitting, your chances of developing the lung cancer are about half that of someone who continues to smoke. Fifteen years after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is equal to that of a nonsmoker and your lungs will look like the lungs of someone who never smoked. Those are odds you can live with.

Tobacco is one of the most addictive substances available today. Certainly it’s the most addictive legal substance. It’s hard to quit. No, it’s really, really hard to quit. But if you truly believed the odds I mentioned earlier—if God told you those were the odds, wouldn’t you at least try to quit? Quitting smoking may be the toughest thing you’ll ever do. But doing so increases your chances of living into old age, working productively, being around to watch your grandchildren grow and being glad you don’t have emphysema, heart disease or lung cancer. If you could swing the odds in your favor why wouldn’t you? That’s what I did in Vegas counting cards at Black Jack. OK, so the big guys caught on eventually but I left with my winnings. You know that old saying “quit while you’re ahead”?  In the Vegas world of smoking, quit while you have your health.

For more information on how to quit, go to the American Cancer Society’s web page at http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_13X_Guide_for_Quitting_Smoking.asp or log in to http://www.naquitline.org to find a quitline in your state.

Linda Blount
National Vice President, Health Disparities
The American Cancer Society