§1 · 43 tips
What nearly free things clearly lower your chance of dying early?
Tips from this section that apply in the United States. This section is about health and medicines. It is general information, not a substitute for a doctor’s diagnosis or prescription.
Buckling up in the front seat roughly halves your chance of being killed in a crash. In the front of a light truck it cuts the risk by about 60%. Of the people who died in U.S. cars in 2022 whose belt use is known, half were not buckled up.
Wearing a helmet with the strap fastened lowers a motorcyclist's risk of dying in a crash by about 40%, and of a head injury by about 70%. The strap has to be snug — a helmet dangling loosely on your head doesn't count.
A working smoke alarm cuts the chance of dying in a house fire by about 60%. 40% of people are asleep when a fire starts, and your nose alone won't wake you. If you burn coal or use gas indoors in winter, add a carbon monoxide alarm. In China in 2018, 11,500 (1.15万) people died of carbon monoxide poisoning, and in the 3 winter months, 70% of those deaths happened at home.
A compliant hose costs a few dozen CNY. Replacing it on time is a duty of the user under the Regulations on Urban Gas Management (《城镇燃气管理条例》). The same regulations expressly forbid altering pipes or removing the gas meter yourself. They also say a gas company may not require you to buy products or services it designates. If someone comes to your door saying you “must replace” something, you can simply refuse.
In 2025 alone, China had 828 mushroom poisoning incidents, 2165 people fell ill and 13 died. That same year 34 more species were newly identified as poisonous that had never been recorded as harmful before. Silver needles turning black, “if bugs eat it, it's safe,” “only brightly colored ones are poisonous” — none of these sayings holds up.
Pushing an electric bike into a stairwell or elevator, or charging it at home, is expressly banned by the Ministry of Emergency Management's (应急管理部) Provisions on Fire Safety Management of High-Rise Civil Buildings (《高层民用建筑消防安全管理规定》). If you don't correct it, an individual is fined 500 to 1000 CNY and a business 2000 to 10000 CNY. The fine is the small part. What matters is that this kind of fire starts in your only escape route.
For every 10 mmHg drop in blood pressure, the chance of a major cardiovascular event falls by about 20%, stroke by 27%, heart failure by 28% and death by 13%. Among Chinese people aged 35 to 75, 44.7% have high blood pressure, and only 7.2% have it under control.
For a few dozen CNY and one tube of blood, you can find prediabetes while you still have no symptoms at all. The official U.S. screening advice is to test people aged 35 to 70 who are overweight or obese. If the result is normal, repeat it every 3 years. The U.S. counts a body mass index of 25 as overweight, relaxed to 23 for Asian Americans; the Chinese standard is 24.
For every 1% increase in average speed, the chance of a fatal crash rises by about 4%. There is no safe level of alcohol where “a little is fine.” Risk starts rising even when the alcohol concentration in the blood is still very low.
For infants under 1 riding in a car seat, the chance of a fatal injury in a crash is about 70% lower. For children aged 1 to 4, it is about half. Holding a child on your lap gives no such protection, and in a sudden stop you can't hold on.
A pair of stops costs a few dozen CNY. New York City installed window guards free in high-risk households and visited to explain how to use them; in one borough, reported child falls dropped by half over 3 years. New York later passed a law requiring landlords to put guards on homes where children live. A window screen pushes open and does not count as protection.
If you fall into the water wearing a life jacket, your chance of drowning is about half that of someone not wearing one. Drowning is still the leading cause of death for children aged 1 to 14 in China. The drowning death rate in rural areas is about twice that in cities.
Training balance 2 to 3 times a week, tai chi for example, cuts the number of falls among older people by about 23% and the number of people who fall by 15%. Making the home non-slip and adding grab bars cuts falls by about another 20%. Falls are the leading cause of injury death for people over 65 in China, and more than half of them happen at home.
The test costs a few dozen CNY. In the Qidong trial, followed for 30 years, people vaccinated against hepatitis B at birth were 84% less likely to get primary liver cancer later and 72% less likely to carry the virus. Adults who test with no antibodies get 3 shots, finished within half a year, for 100 or 200 CNY.
Once tetanus develops, about 1 in 10 people die. Deep wounds and wounds with dirt in them carry the highest risk. If a wound is dirty and it has been 5 years or more since your last shot, you need 1 booster shot. Treating it that day costs a few dozen CNY at most; don't wait until the wound swells up.
In data on 1,670,000 (167万) women in Sweden, those vaccinated against HPV before age 17 had only about one-eighth the chance of later getting invasive cervical cancer compared with those not vaccinated. Those vaccinated between 17 and 30 had about half. So the earlier you get it, the more it is worth.
A mammogram every 2 years for women aged 40 to 74 is explicitly recommended in the official U.S. screening advice. For women 75 and older, and for adding ultrasound or MRI for dense breasts, the official conclusion is that the evidence is not enough. When a checkup package charges extra for those, you can skip them.
In the rural India trial, women who had just one HPV test in their lives were about half as likely to die of cervical cancer, and about half as likely to be found with advanced cervical cancer. One or two hundred CNY a test, and a negative result lasts 5 years.
A stool blood test that costs a few dozen CNY, done every year or two, lowers the chance of dying of colorectal cancer by about 16%, and by 25% for people who completed at least one round. For people invited to have one colonoscopy, the chance of getting colorectal cancer over the next 10 years falls from 1.20% to 0.98%.
In the trial of flu vaccine after a heart attack, deaths within a year fell from 4.9% to 2.9%. For people with cardiovascular disease and for older adults, a shot each fall costs 50 to 150 CNY.
In a phase 3 trial, this vaccine blocked 97% of shingles, about the same across age groups. The drawback is 3000 to 4000 CNY for 2 doses, entirely out of pocket. What that money buys is a 97% reduction in cases.
In a trial of 84,500 (8.45万) older adults, the 13-valent pneumococcal vaccine blocked about 46% of pneumonia caused by the types it covers, and 75% of the most dangerous invasive infections. But no effect was seen on pneumonia from all causes, so don't expect it to prevent all pneumonia.
In the Linqu, Shandong trial, followed for 22 years, people whose H. pylori was eradicated were about half as likely to get stomach cancer later, and about 40% less likely to die of it. The test costs one or two hundred CNY, and eradication means two weeks of pills.
Eligible heavy smokers who get a low-dose CT every year have a 20% lower chance of dying of lung cancer than those who get only a chest X-ray, and a 6.7% lower chance of dying overall. The price is follow-up testing after a suspicious result, and the worry during that time.
Evidence keeps growing that putting deadly means out of reach works: after painkillers were restricted, related suicides fell 43%; at places where people often jumped, adding barriers cut suicides there by 86%. So don't stock sleeping pills or pesticide at home. When you can't see a way out, call 12356 first — it works nationwide in China and is staffed at least 18 hours a day.
The fire extinguisher, fire blanket, escape hood and first-aid kit are all on the Ministry of Emergency Management's (应急管理部) 11-item home emergency list. A set costs a few hundred CNY, bought once. In studies of home safety guidance given in person at the home, the rate of injury was about a quarter lower.
For someone over 60 who sees visible blood in the urine once, the chance that bladder cancer is eventually found is about 2.8%; for ages 40 to 59 it is about 1.2%. That is not high, but it is high enough that you must get checked once. Get checked even if the bleeding stops the next day.
Men with erectile dysfunction later get cardiovascular disease about 40% more often than other men, and heart attacks about 60% more often. The younger the man, the bigger the gap. This problem often shows up before chest pain does. So get your blood pressure, blood sugar and blood lipids checked, and don't buy pills yourself to cover it up.
When you manage cardiovascular risk factors, erectile function itself improves. On a questionnaire score, it rises by 2 to 3 points on average. The questionnaire has a total of 25 points, and 22 or above counts as normal.
Worn every time and throughout, a condom cuts the chance of passing on HIV between a man and a woman by roughly 70% or more. Using one “most of the time” does little better than not using one. It also blocks syphilis, gonorrhea and the like.
Testing for HIV at the CDC (疾控) is free. Without your own consent, no organization or individual may disclose your name, address, workplace or medical history. A positive result is not a death sentence: people who keep taking medication and bring the virus down to undetectable do not pass it on to their sex partners. In that study, which followed more than 700 couples through more than 70,000 acts of sex without a condom, transmission between partners was zero.
Among people who survived a suicide attempt, nearly half said that no more than 10 minutes passed between the thought first appearing and acting on it, so what has to be gotten through is often just those few dozen minutes. Three-quarters had some contact with people around them during that time; they just didn't say anything. Among people admitted to hospital for self-harm, about 2% died by suicide within 1 year and about 7% after 9 or more years; the great majority did not later die by suicide.
Paraquat has no antidote, and more than 40% of people who swallow it can't be saved. It inflames the lungs, which slowly stiffen, and the kidneys and liver are hurt as well. Among people saved from carbon monoxide poisoning, nearly half have a brain that is not what it was 6 weeks later, and even with hyperbaric oxygen, a quarter still do.
Among people who fell from a height and ended up in a trauma ICU, only 5.5% died, but the injuries were severe and treatment was long. Nearly half had injuries to 3 or more body regions, more than a third needed a ventilator, and the longest ICU stay was 132 days. Half of them fell from no more than 3 meters. Among those severely hurt, fewer than 60% were later able to go back to work.
Among proper donors who are screened layer by layer before donating and checked afterward, 31 in every 10,000 reached kidney failure 15 years later, versus 4 in 10,000 among equally healthy people who didn't donate. People who sold a kidney had no screening and no follow-up; 6 years later 86% said their health was worse, and three-quarters were still in debt.
Radiation has no smell, color or temperature, and most radioactive sources look like an ordinary piece of metal, so “it looks fine” is no way to judge. The chance of an ordinary person running into one is very low: fewer than 1 incident per year per 10,000 sources. But once it happens it can't be undone. In 1987 in Brazil, people broke open a radiotherapy machine from an abandoned clinic for scrap metal, and in the end 4 people died.
People who have been seen at a hospital for a gambling problem die by suicide at 15 times the rate of people their age, and die from all causes at 1.8 times the rate. The signal that can tell ahead of time who will die by suicide is depression. So if you are gambling with borrowed money and your mood stays low, call 12356 (China's national mental-health hotline) first.
People who are not yet infected take an antiviral drug in advance, called pre-exposure prophylaxis. For those who take it on schedule, the risk of infection falls by more than 70%. For those who take it on and off, it does almost nothing. It is a prescription drug: you first get checked at a hospital, then it is prescribed, then you return for regular checkups.
Women over 65, and women after menopause who have risk factors for osteoporosis, should have their bone density checked once. Checking risk first and then treating the high-risk people reduces hip fractures by about 17%. In numbers, for every 1000 people screened, about 5 fewer have a hip fracture. No change in total death rate was seen.
For people who have been diagnosed with osteoporosis, or who broke a bone from a light fall, taking medicine as their doctor plans reduces hip fractures by about half and spine fractures by more than half. For older adults who start a once-a-year infusion after hip fracture surgery, new fractures over 2 years are about 35% fewer. Calcium alone cannot stand in for these drugs.
The official line in China is that ice must be 15 cm thick before adults can skate on it. The U.S. and Canada put the minimum at 10 cm, and that counts only new, clear ice. White ice is only half as strong, so the thickness has to double. On the same sheet of ice it can be a foot thick in one place and only an inch or two a few steps away, so measure as you go.
An angle grinder spins extremely fast; a disc that breaks can fly out and hurt someone, and a wood saw blade fitted to it can suddenly kick back. In two accidents in China, a saw blade was fitted and no guard was on: one worker had a thigh artery cut and one had a neck artery cut, and neither could be saved. The guard, safety glasses plus face shield, and a firm two-handed grip cost very little.
The fear that mentioning suicide will plant the thought was not seen in the research. When a question about suicide was added to a questionnaire for secondary-school students, the students who were asked were no more distressed, and no more of them had thoughts of suicide. Students who were already depressed were actually less distressed after being asked, and students who had attempted suicide before actually had fewer suicidal thoughts.
