Raising Awareness - The Goal of American Heart Health Month
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in both men and women. Six hundred thousand people die of heart disease in the United States every year. That equals 1 in 4 deaths. Why is this? The prevalence of smoking has decreased to an all-time low since 1944 – at 20% of adults. We’ve been bombarded by low-fat/no-fat foods for at least the last 3 decades and that is the diet pushed by the American Heart Association. Three of the top 10 most prescribed drugs are designed to lower a person’s mortality from heart disease.
All of those facts lead me to these questions:
- Why are so many people dying of heart disease?
- Why does it remain the leading cause of death?
- Did thousands of people lie on the Gallup poll on smoking?
- Are hundreds of thousands of people ignoring the dietary guidelines?
- Do the drugs not work?
Think about what your heart does – from the 6th week of fetal development to the moment life ends – it beats. That muscle, about the size of your fist, will relax and contract over 3 billion times, pumping about 5 quarts of blood every minute. In that blood is all the oxygen and nutrition your body needs to survive and thrive and the waste that needs to be removed. That’s a lot of work; it makes sense why the heart is called the “King of the Body” in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Ponder those things during this month of February – American Heart Health Month.
Related Posts