February is American Heart month. Now is an ideal time to remind Americans to focus on their heart health and encourage them to get their families, friends and communities involved in learning more about heart health. While American Heart Month is a federally designated month in the United States, it’s important to realize that cardiovascular disease knows no borders. Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, remains the leading global cause of death with more than 17.9 million deaths each year.
When we think of heart health, it is important to remember that the health of all our body systems relies upon our heart and that our heart relies upon each of them. In today’s era it has become increasingly difficult to keep our heart healthy. We have come to depend upon so many conveniences, including the availability of fast food, the ubiquitous drive-thru and delivery services for anything else. This proves to be an unhealthy combination, encouraging us to take advantage of the readily available processed food, laden with excess fat and salt, without even requiring us to take the steps from the car to the store to get the food. We never even have to stand up if we don’t want to!
This type of lifestyle can contribute to increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels. Each of these disorders on its own has been linked to cardiovascular disease. When these disorders occur together, it is known as Metabolic Syndrome. This greatly increases the chances for future cardiovascular disease
What can we do to decrease our risk of Metabolic Syndrome??
The American Heart Association (AHA) suggests at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise to improve overall cardiovascular health. Those numbers can be daunting for someone starting off on the couch.
However, we can make small changes to our daily routine
1. We can intentionally park in the lot in a spot farthest away from our destination.
2. We can choose to bring lunch from home instead of eating out.
3. We can choose to always take the stairs.
4. We can try to make a couple of loops around our office in between meetings.
In these ways (and many more I'm sure!) we can start to combat the toll of our sedentary lifestyle.
We at Curus are very focused on prevention and the detection of early warning signs of potential health problems. By being vigilant about monitoring our overall health, we will help keep our heart health in its best possible condition.
Click Here Metabolic Syndrome and recommended parameters for each disorder through American Heart Association.
Note from Mark Schlussel, CEO
February has been Heart Health Month as discussed in an article written by our Lead Medical Engagement Officer. As I was thinking about the article and the important role Sara plays at Curus, I realized that she, along with the other members of the leadership team, continually focus on the whole person. As medicine continues to specialize and physicians have specialties within specialties, the extraordinary value of Curus lies in the fact that we manage the care of the total person.
