Healthcare is pulled and shaped by many forces, by drug and insurance companies looking for profits, by politicians in search of votes, and by stressed, overworked physicians who barely have time to talk to you before writing a prescription or packing you off to a specialist.

So is anyone interested in keeping you well?

Yes. The Ultraprevention program will work for everyone. The promise of its practice is huge -- a health span that matches life span -- and you'll experience increased energy, weight loss, enhanced mood and memory, better digestion, deeper sleep, diminished stress, and more.

Isolating the source of more than 90 percent of today's most common diseases, from cancer and heart disease to diabetes, stroke, and Alzheimer's, Drs. Hyman and Liponis enumerate the Five Forces of Illness -- Sludge (malnutrition), Burnout (impaired metabolism), Heat (inflammation), Waste (impaired detoxification), and Rust (oxidative stress).

Through the practice of the six-week Ultraprevention program, you'll learn three simple steps that stop these forces and create a lifetime of good health. So stop falling for the myths that make you sick and start Ultraprevention, the powerful plan to get older without aging, to maintain health for all of life.

How knowledgeable are you about today's medicine? Take this test to find out.

1. As a busy professional, you must often eat many meals out that you might otherwise prefer to skip or prepare at home. Tomorrow you have a breakfast date. Because you are starting to pay more attention to your diet, you are determined to order the healthiest breakfast possible. Which of the following would be your best choice?

a. Half a bagel with a tablespoon of jam and a glass of orange juice

b. Instant oatmeal and two slices of whole wheat toast with a small amount of margarine

c. Raisin-bran cereal with a cup of skim milk

d. A mushroom, onion, and pepper omelette

Answer:

If you picked (a) you have been misled by too many ads for low-fat foods. This breakfast has little nutritive value. It is made up almost entirely of empty calories and has a high glycemic index. In other words, its main ingredient is sugar.

Choice (b) sounds good, but it isn't. Processed and instant oatmeal, as well as most breads labeled "whole wheat," are actually surprisingly low in fiber, no matter what the ads on television say. And the addition of the hydrogenated fat in margarine makes this breakfast downright unhealthy -- among other problems, consuming such fats can lead to premature aging.

If you chose (c), you are once again falling into the sugar trap. Most commercial raisin-bran cereals have a great deal of added sugar, which probably negates the benefit of the small amount of fiber in the bran.

The correct answer is (d). Despite suffering from a lot of bad publicity, eggs are very low in saturated fat, and do not increase your cholesterol. Organic omega-3 eggs are particularly high in healthful fats, and are an excellent source of protein and folic acid. And as you probably know, the veggies add nutrients that are important for your antioxidant and detoxification systems.

2. You are finally slated to take that physical examination you've been avoiding. But your busy, much-in-demand doctor is always rushed, and you want to remind him to give you that one crucial test that will provide you with an inside track on preventing diseases such as heart attack, stroke, dementia, and some forms of cancer. The test is for levels of:

a. Cholesterol

b. Blood sugar

c. Vitamin E

d. Homocysteine

Answer:Cholesterol levels (a) alone tell very little about the risks ofserious illness; checking the type of cholesterol is much more valuable. Levels of LDL, or bad cholesterol, are important, but now we know there are even good and bad LDL types. And, of course, levels of HDL (the good cholesterol) may be more critical than LDL numbers in many people. Add in your triglyceride levels (which may indicate possible heart disease, brain deterioration, and potentially stroke) and you have a much more telling tale of yourrisk.

If you picked (b), sorry -- by the time your blood sugar has become elevated, the imbalances that lead to diabetes have been progressing for years! There are much more sensitive and earlier ways to detect and prevent this tendency.

Although vitamin E (c) is an extremely important nutrient, it does not act alone but in concert with many other nutrients and antioxidants. Checking your antioxidant system is far more valuable than checking this single antioxidant component; this involves looking at the status of various nutrients in your body, certain levels of antioxidant enzymes and reserves of antioxidant nutrients, as well as the activity of free radicals.

If you chose (d) -- correct! More than any other single test, homocysteine correctly identifies the risk of such conditions as heart attack, stroke, and dementia years before...