By Connie Colbert
Director, Canyon Health and Wellness Clinic
World Heart Day is Friday, Sept. 29. Let’s celebrate by making healthy lifestyle changes.
The day is an international campaign to spread awareness of heart disease and stroke, the biggest causes of death worldwide.
Some of the risk factors are things you cannot change, such as age and family history, but there are ways to decrease your risk.
This is actually the perfect day to quit smoking, start working out and begin maintaining a healthy diet – with the goal of keeping your heart in good condition and enhancing the wellness of you and everyone else.
The World Heart Federation has discovered that cardiovascular disease and strokes are the world’s leading cause of death. About 17.3 million people die of those causes each year – that is greater than malaria, HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis combined.
Overeating, loss of focus, unhealthy diets, bloodstream pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels are factors that could trigger cardiovascular disease.
Heart Day was established to spread information on how heart disease can be avoided. The goal is to improve health globally by encouraging individuals to make changes in their lifestyle and by marketing education. This lesson has become progressively relevant as reviews of weight problems, poor diet and physical lack of exercise in young people become more common.
Eat your fruit and vegetables, limit salt in your diet, exercise and don’t smoke, and your heart will reap the benefits.
If you would like more information on World Heart Day, would like to become involved or want to discover your heart IQ, visit https://www.worldheartday.org/
