Healthy Heart, National Wear Red Day… 29/07/10

heartrisk

In honor of National Wear Red Day I’d like to re-post something I wrote back in July. A post about being “heart healthy”. Are you? Check it out and also make sure to “Go Red” today to help raise support for the fight against heart disease in women! For more information about National Wear Red Day please visit this link.

Recently I found this little blurb in the May 2010 edition of Women’s Health magazine . I was a little stunned and a little concerned. As a writer and as a person who spends quite a bit of time on the computer (like a lot of you), I was thinking about this statistic and how I didn’t want to end up as just that… a statistic. To add to my concern I come from a long line of un-healthy heart people. High blood pressure and high cholesterol run rampant on my dad’s side of the family. Most every one of my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. are on medication to control these things so there is A LOT of un-healthy heart DNA to go around. So far, I’ve been lucky. (KNOCKING on wood right now). But what to do to make sure I stay lucky?

I mean here a lot of us are writing about getting healthy, making smart choices for ourselves and our families yet at the same time spending many hours a week sitting on our butts getting our type on. Or our twitter on or our FB on or or or…

I already knew that the #1 killer of American women is cardiovascular disease but as I did more research the numbers are scary and according to The Women’s Heart Foundation “only 31% of women know that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of the death in the USA ”. WOW. Check out these links for additional eye-opening facts and stats regarding heart health in women:

http://www.womensheart.org/content/HeartAttack/heart_attack_facts.asp

http://www.womenheart.org/resources/cvdfactsheet.cfm

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4786

What can we do to protect ourselves and invest in a heart healthy future? We need to be aware. We need to raise awareness and for many of us continue to do what we are doing by exercising daily and choosing to eat healthy, nutritious foods. GO get a check up! You can only prepare for your future health if you know what is going on with your ticker NOW. I also encourage you to join the “GO RED movement”! Go Red For Women is dedicated to fighting heart disease and saving women’s lives! Join the FREE movement here: http://www.goredforwomen.org where the site is packed with important information and tips to get you heart healthy!

And for all of us who are sitting, reading and or writing this is a wake up call to action. ACTION! Lets not become statistics! I’ve done a little research and the links below give a few good pointers on exercising while on the computer. Regardless, nothing can substitute for a little common sense and a heart healthy diet plan and exercise. Talk to your doctor and start living your plan of action…