Topics for Medical Persuasive Speeches

Just as medical treatments have become more complex and effective over the last century or so, general knowledge of preventive measures has expanded and deepened. Medical advice is given on TV and also in public presentations. Some of the details --- what particular foods and supplements are and are not recommended for particular purposes, for instance --- shift back and forth with research in different fields. A few general topics are more settled and can be presented confidently and convincingly from readily available information.

Recommended Daily Plate

• In June 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture stopped organizing its nutritional recommendations with the complex "food groups" pyramid and introduced "My Plate." The simpler icon shows half the circle of daily nutritional intake given to fruits and vegetables and less than a quarter to protein, including meat, eggs, nuts, seeds and combinations of grains and legumes. There's no space on the plate specifically designated for fats, either helpful vegetable fats or harmful fats primarily from animal products. Dairy, on the other hand, gets its own little circle, positioned above the plate where a glass of milk might stand.

Stop Smoking

• Although it may seem that smoking is a mostly dead issue --- the American Lung Association found half as large a percentage of adults identifying themselves as smokers in 2008 than in 1965 --- there were still 46 million American adults, almost the same actual numbers, smoking. Perhaps in an effort to minimize the dangers without giving up smoking, from 1974 to 2008, many more of the smokers were down to fewer than 15 cigarettes a day, and only 10 percent of smokers used more than 24 cigarettes a day. Between 2000 and 2004, however, smoking was responsible for one in five deaths, reducing life expectancy by more than a decade.

Cancer Prevention and Screening

• Most of the general cancer-prevention recommendations dovetail with other topics, such as "Eat Healthy and Get Active," "Stay Away from Tobacco" and "Be Safe in the Sun." Particular cancers may also have their own preventive measures. The main general recommendation to reduce the risk of dying from cancer --- if not of developing it --- is to follow a screening regimen appropriate to your known risk factors, some of which change with age. The American Cancer Society also recommends that every regular checkup for people in their 20s and older include professional screening for cancers of the thyroid, mouth, skin, lymph nodes and testes or ovaries.

Organ Donation

• More than 100,000 Americans were waiting for lifesaving organ transplants as of March 2011, nearly 2,000 of them children. Donate Life America, created by the United Network for Organ Sharing, reports that 98 percent of American adults have heard about organ donation and 90 percent support it. Only 30 percent, however, know how to register in their states to be organ donors. The most important action to persuade an audience to take in regard to organ donation comes before registration: Ask your listeners to talk to their families so they don't have to wonder what their loved ones would want them to answer when asked about donation.