Wednesday, February 8, 2017

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Heart Health

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead."  
                                                                          --Oscar Wilde

February is American Heart Month.  Being healthy means being a good steward of your heart. 

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 The fact is that for half of people with heart disease, the first sign is often sudden death.  I remember a man I used to work with in Palm Beach County, Florida.  He was the picture of health and an administrator for Florida Department of Health.  He was a runner, didn’t smoke, and ate sensibly.  He didn’t have diabetes.  One day he had a heart attack and died. 

Protect your heart.  If you have diabetes, you have 4 times higher risk for a heart attack or stroke than someone without diabetes. 


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Commit to healthy eating.  Eat vegetables.  Drink lots of water.  Go easy on the saturated fats (found in foods from animals).  Make most of your fats the good ones (unsaturated) like wild salmon, olive oil, avocados and nuts.  Enjoy a small piece of dark (70%) chocolate daily.    

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Commit to your own fitness (more than 150 minutes a week).  Take walks.  Skip.  Ski.  Jog.  Swim.  Jump rope.  Kayak.  Anything that moves you!  

Enjoy your life.  Eat dinner with friends.  Laugh often. Repeat.

For more information about heart health and preventable and treatable heart conditions such as high blood pressure, go to www.heart.org or click here.

Take care of your heart.   

With love and gratitude,
Nancy L. Heinrich, MPH

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.