American Heart Month
It’s American Heart Month! We have twenty-eight days dedicated to heart health and awareness. It’s the perfect time to educate ourselves and make heart health a lifetime priority.
Heart disease is the number one leading cause of death for adults in the United States. It trumps cancer, car accidents, and even opioid-related deaths. In fact, heart disease contributes to 1 out of every 4 deaths per year. That’s over 600,000 Americans that die annually (1). What makes these statistics even more devastating is the fact that simple precautions can be taken to prevent heart disease.
Prevention starts with knowing your risks. Some people naturally have a greater risk of heart disease because of uncontrollable risk factors such as age, gender, race, their family’s medical history, or their own cardiovascular history. For example, 49 percent of African American women over the age of nineteen suffer from heart disease. A major reason for this shocking statistic is simply a lack of awareness. Only 36 percent of African American women reportedly recognized heart disease as a major threat (2). To thwart the risk factors, we need to look at the risk factors that we can control:
High Blood Pressure – When the force of blood against the blood vessel walls is consistently too high, hypertension or high blood pressure is diagnosed. Hypertension impacts heart disease because this consistent pressure makes the heart and blood vessels work harder to deliver oxygen throughout the body, damaging them over time. (3).
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Crock Pot Taco Soup
