According to a recent study by St. Joseph’s Hospital, 70 percent of patients didn’t know they suffered a minor stroke and nearly a third of patients didn’t visit a doctor for more than 24 hours. The American Stroke Association created the following checklist to recognize signs of stroke by thinking “FAST:”
- F – Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?
- A – Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
- S – Ask the person to speak. Does the speech sound slurred or strange?
- T – If you observe any of these signs, call 9-1-1 or get to the nearest hospital.
As part of National Heart Month, we should think about our heart health asking this question: How do I begin the journey of taking the strain off my heart? Our hearts work tirelessly, without rest or pause, over the course of our lifetimes providing us with an average of 70 to 75 beats per minute, or more than 100 thousand beats a day.
When given regular exercise and a healthy diet rich in nutrients, a typical human heart will beat around 2.5 billion times by age 70. Unfortunately, statistics point out that too many hearts fall short of that milestone. As it’s American Heart Month, it’s time to spread awareness that one in every three deaths is from heart disease or stroke.
According to the latest report released by the American Heart Association (AHA) in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately one American dies of cardiovascular disease every 39 seconds, with nearly 33 percent of these deaths occurring before the age of 75, well before the predicted average lifespan for Americans of 78 years. And the most surprising fact? Heart disease is completely preventable. Every risk factor can be mitigated or eliminated by simply choosing a heart-healthy lifestyle.
Heart-Healthy Lifestyle
How to begin the journey of taking the strain off your heart? Regular exercise and quitting smoking are critical, and so is eating a diet rich in antioxidants and fiber, as well as maintaining a healthy weight. Excess weight, the kind carried around the middle in particular, can put major strain on the heart and contributes to risk factors such as high blood pressure, insulin resistance, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides.
For help doing away with risk factors, there’s Isagenix—the Cleansing and Fat Burning System with Ageless Essentials Daily Pack is nutritionally sound and is clinically shown to help people meet their weight-management goals. The system’s Shake Days help control calories and its Cleanse Days help trigger healthy fat burning and promote natural detoxification while resting the liver. In addition, the system maximizes nutrition, providing all-important antioxidant nutrients such as vitamin E and coQ10, while also including fish omega-3 fatty acids to keep the heart going strong into old age (1-2).*
Regular add-ons such as SlimCakes or FiberSnacks! are also excellent for supplementing a fruit-and-vegetable-rich diet for heart-healthy fiber, which is largely absent in the American diet.** IsaDelight Plus chocolates can also be included as delicious, guilt-free snacks that can curb cravings assisting with weight loss (3).
Regardless of how we take care of ourselves, every heartbeat should serve as a small reminder this month of the statistics given above, the role of the heart, and to make choices showing we appreciate what it does for us daily as long as we live. If you would like to find out more information about how the Isagenix nutritional cleansing supplement line can change your life, as it did mine, please visit my website here or contact me here.
References
1. Shargorodsky M, Debby O, Matas Z, Zimlichman R. Effect of long-term treatment with antioxidants (vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10 and selenium) on arterial compliance, humoral factors and inflammatory markers in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Nutr Metab (Lond) 2010;7:55.
2. Strom M, Halldorsson TI, Mortensen EL, Torp-Pedersen C, Olsen SF. Fish, n-3 fatty acids, and cardiovascular diseases in women of reproductive age: a prospective study in a large national cohort. Hypertension 2012;59:36-43.
3. Buitrago-Lopez A, Sanderson J, Johnson L et al. Chocolate consumption and cardiometabolic disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2011;343:d4488.
*Supportive but not conclusive research shows that consumption of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. One serving of Ageless Essentials Daily Pack provides 1,200 milligrams of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids. [See nutrition information for total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol content.]
**Diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.
Comments