Without it, your body would quickly begin to decay as bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and diseases invade the body and eat away at your cells. Even an immune system functioning at partly reduced effectiveness leaves the body vulnerable to these invading substances.

Sleep apnea is a common and serious sleep disorder that can lead to major sleep deprivation. Although you may associate sleep apnea with snoring, not everyone who snores has sleep apnea. In sleep
apnea, there is actually silence. That's because breathing stops for up to 10 seconds at a time. Typically what happens is that the throat muscles relax, the jaw moves backwards, which narrows or blocks the airways. This in turn prevents air from getting through the mouth or nose and into the lungs.

The risks of high cholesterol are well known. Almost 20% of all strokes and 50% of heart attacks can be traced to high cholesterol, according to the World Health Organization. Yet most people either don't know what their levels are or don't know what their levels should be. One thing for sure—over 100 million Americans, over age 20, have high cholesterol.