Today is Blog Your Heart Out Day! As a woman, I do worry about being heart healthy. No woman in my family has dealt with heart disease, but my grandfather recently had a triple bypass, and is doing well. They call heart disease The Silent Killer, and rightly so. My grandpa had no idea there was anything going on with his heart until the day he had a heart attack. He was a healthy, fit man. Heart disease is the number one killer in the world. It kills more people than cancer in the USA. And it affects woman more than it does men. I am not the most healthy chick, and I know I should do better. I want to be around for my kids for a long long time.
I did the Heart Checkup on Go Red For Women, and overall my risk is very low at 1%, but I am at moderate risk with my cholesterol. So that shows me that I need to get on top of things and eat better.
Non-controllable risk factors of heart disease:
*Family history of coronary artery disease or stroke
*Age 55 or older
*Being post-menopausal, or having your ovaries removed
*A family history of premature cardiac disease (less than 60 years,) especially in a sister or brother, may be a particularly important risk factor in women. Women with such a family history should be aggressive in controlling cardiac risk factors.
Controllable risk factors:
*Obesity
*Sedentary lifestyle
*Smoking
*Hypertension
*High total cholesterol, and/or reduced HDL cholesterol
*Diabetes
*Metabolic syndrome
*Increased C-reactive protein (CRP)
*Use of birth control pills, especially if also a smoker
*Complicated pregancy (hypertension, diabetes, low birth weight)
Join the Go Red For Women Movement online at the goredforwomen.org and make it your mission to tell at least 5 other women about the risks of heart disease!
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