American Heart Month
February is American Heart Month! Your heart is one of the most important organs you have because it keeps everything else working properly. Not taking care of your heart can lead to some serious health risks. Here are some statistics taken from heart.org* on where our country stands on taking care of their hearts.
- 220.8 per 100,000:Â The overall rate of death attributable to Cardiovascular Disease, based on 2014 data.
- On average, someone died of Cardiovascular Disease every 40 seconds. That is about 2,200 deaths of CVD each day.
- More than 65% of US adults have 2, 3, or 4 criteria at ideal cardiovascular health, with ≈20% adults within each of these categories. At any age, females tend to have more metrics at ideal levels than do males. Blacks and Hispanics tend to have fewer metrics at ideal levels than whites or other races.
- 85.7 million, or 34.0% of US adults are estimated to have hypertension, based on 2011-2014 data.
- 28.5 million, or 11.9% of US adults are estimated to have total serum cholesterol levels ≥240 mg/dL, based on 2011-2014 data.
- 1 in 6 males and 1 in 7 females in the United States are current smokers, based on 2015 data.
- On average, 1 in 3 adults, or 30.4% Do not engage in leisure time physical activity. Hispanic and Non-Hispanic black adults were more likely to be inactive.
image source:Â www.cdc.gov
After seeing these facts, it may be easier to understand precisely why there is a whole month set aside to put a spotlight on heart health. Heath Disease is still one of the leading causes of death for men and women in the United States. That’s why we want to do whatever we can to help get the word out about taking care of your heart. In our next blog, you will find some critical steps that you and your loved ones can do to keep yourselves from being a high risk for heart disease.
