Care to Care, a Multi-Specialty Management company, is proud to observe February as American Heart Month. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease. Heart disease does not only affect older adults. High rates of obesity and high blood pressure among younger people are putting them at risk for heart disease earlier in life. Half of all Americans have at least one of the top three risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking. About half of people with high blood pressure do not have it under control. Uncontrolled high blood pressure is one of the biggest risks for heart disease and other harmful conditions, such as stroke. The rise of obesity in America, which now affects 1 in 3 Americans and nearly 1 in 6 children, is another explanation for the rise in heart disease. Carrying extra weight is a risk factor for heart disease as it adds stress on the heart. Diabetes, which affects nearly 1 in 10 Americans, causes sugar to build up in the blood. The extra sugar damages blood vessels and nerves that help control the heart muscle.
Care to Care encourages you to learn about your risk for heart disease, embrace strategies for preventing heart disease, and live heart healthy lives. You can make healthy changes today that will lower your risk of developing heart disease. To lower your risk, watch your weight, don’t smoke, control your cholesterol level and blood pressure, manage your diabetes, only drink alcohol in moderation, and increase your physical activity. Make heart-healthy eating changes.  Eat food low in trans-fat, saturated fat, added sugar and sodium. Controlling and preventing risk factors is also important for people who already have heart disease in order to improve their health. For more information on heart disease, visit the American Heart Association’s website at www.heart.org or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease.
Rachel S. Title, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Care to Care, LLC