February is American Heart Month, so I will spend the entire month informing and educating you about heart disease. Heart disease includes several conditions affecting the structures or function of the heart, including:

Coronary artery disease (including heart attack)
Abnormal heart rhythms or arrhythmias
Heart failure
Heart valve disease
Congenital heart disease
Heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy)
Pericardial disease
Aorta disease and Marfan syndrome
Vascular disease (blood vessel disease)

Heart disease is still the number one killer of both men and women in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) more than 910,000 Americans die of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. every year, approximately one death every 35 seconds!

The beginning of heart disease is very subtle so most people ignore the need to take control of the behaviors that affect their heart health until they develop symptoms such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol. However, making constructive changes in your life style at any age can have a positive impact on preventing, and possibly reversing, your chances of developing heart disease. For example, the CDC reports that lowering your blood cholesterol level by just 10 percent may reduce the occurrence of coronary heart disease by as much as 30 percent.

The American Heart Association has developed the My Life Check program “with the goal of improved health by educating the public on how best to live. These measures have one unique thing in common: any person can make these changes, the steps are not expensive to take and even modest improvements to your health will make a big difference. Start with one or two. This simple, seven step list has been developed to deliver on the hope we all have--to live a long, productive healthy life”.

Life’s Simple 7 steps are:
1. Get Active
2. Control Cholesterol
3. Eat Better
4. Manage Blood Pressure
5. Lose Weight
6. Reduce Blood Sugar
7. Stop Smoking

We will expand on each of these steps during American Heart Month also.

Please visit ParentYourParents.com’s Blog each day in February for more information on the different heart diseases, and the AMA’s Life’s Simple 7 steps to improve your heart health.


Sources:
Heart Disease Guide. WebMD website: http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/diseases-cardiovascular.

My Life Check. American Heart Association website: http://mylifecheck.heart.org/Default.aspx?NavID=1&CultureCode=en-US.

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