February is American Heart Month.  The month for the medical industry to take time to educate people on healthy habits and keeping your heart strong.  But what does that mean?

As people age, years of eating, drinking, smoking, stress, and athletic activity creates a “heart age”.  Your Heart Age takes the above factors into consideration and is calculated to understand your risk of heart attack or stroke.  NYC Health has created an online quiz to understand your Heart Age.   The quiz takes into consideration:

• Age
• Gender
• Systolic blook pressure
• Smoker
• Diabetic

The goal is to have your heart age be the same age as your body or lower.  The lower your heart age, the lower your risk of heart attack and stroke.

If you do find that your heart age is older than you, there are some steps to take at home to decrease your heart age and increase healthiness.  These include: 

• Quit smoking if you’re a smoker.  While this may be a hard commitment, smokers are six times more likely to have a stroke vs. those who don’t smoke and four times more likely to have coronary heart disease.  Within one year of not smoking, the changes of coronary heart disease cuts in half.  Within 15 years, the likelihood of developing coronary heart disease equals that of a non-smoker. https://www.genesishcs.org/services-search/lung-care/quitting-smoking.  CAM Formulas offers Professional Formulas Anti-Smoking drops that may aid in attempts to quit smoking. 
• Work out.  This doesn’t mean you have to become a gym rat overnight.  However, you want to get at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week.  This breaks down to roughly 30 minutes a day/5 days a week. With a target heart rate of between 64% and 72% of your maximum age-related heart rate.
• Eat Heart Healthy Foods.  Heart healthy foods include vegetables, fruits, nuts, and lean protein.  
• Daily Vitamins and Supplements if you have high blood pressure and/or Cholesterol.  Including daily vitamins that help support already healthy cholesterol and blood pressure can support already healthy cholesterol levels. 
• Manage your blood sugar.  Diabetics are at risk for multiple health complications and 2-4 times more likely to develop heart disease.  Roughly 25% of people over the age of 65 have type 1 or type 2 diabetes.  Maintaining a healthy weight, diet, exercise and not smoking can also stave off developing diabetes later in life.

Take time for yourself today to understand your heart age and how to be healthier and lower your overall risk of heart disease.