Healthy Heart, Happy Life

If I were to ask you what is the number one leading cause of death in the United States, what would you say? Most would say cancer, suicide, car accidents, etc. Here's the kicker- it's heart disease. The number ONE cause of DEATH in the United States! *cue shocked emotions* When thinking about it deeper, it only makes sense. The human heart is the most important organ in the human body - other than the brain. The heart is what pumps blood through our body and also supplies oxygen to the rest of our body (Lewis , 2016). You might be wondering, if the human heart is so important, why do so many people suffer from heart disease?

Millions and millions of people are affected by heart disease each year. To understand the importance of cardiovascular disease, I'm going to get super scientific for a second. Cardiovascular disease happens when plaque is built up on the artery walls, atherosclerosis if you really wanted to know the technical term (American Heart Association, 2016). In literal terms, people eat terrible and don't exercise (just two examples) and suddenly blood can't get through their arteries. That blood then can't reach the rest of the body. It is natural to grow plaque on the artery walls, even you reading this blog has plaque on their artery walls. Sorry, don't mean to scare you. The silver lining is that there are SO many things we can do to improve our heart health!

One of the biggest things we can do to improve our heart health and limit our risk of suffering from heart disease is to EXERCISE? Do you hate that word? Because I do. All jokes aside, living a sedentary life is definitely not a good thing in any area of life. It can lead to obesity, low self-esteem, and most importantly... HEART DISEASE! Exercise can lower cholesterol, make a person lose weight, and will lower blood pressure. All of these things are exceptional ways to prevent heart disease. Trust me when I say you are not alone if you are reading this and dreading the thought of getting on a treadmill - I'm currently tired just writing this - but just knowing how beneficial just 30 minutes of exercise a day can be is worth it.

My passion for this topic stems from my father - a man who suffers from heart disease. At age 5, I watched my dad go through open heart surgery with 7 bypasses. 7!!!! Seem like a lot? It is. For the rest of my life after that, my dad has had several stents put in place and I see the fear in his eyes every time he has to go to the cardiologist. I love my dad, do not get me wrong, but if I can prevent this from happening to other people down the road, it is worth sharing the story. But more on that in later posts :)

Healthy Heart, Happy Life!

Thanks for reading!

References:
American Heart Association. (2016). What is Cardiovascular Disease? Retrieved from http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Caregiver/Resources/WhatisCardiovascularDisease/What-is-Cardiovascular-Disease_UCM_301852_Article.jsp#.V-m8eqIrK2w
               
Lewis, Tanya. (2016) Human Heart, Anatomy, Functions and Facts. LiveScience. Retrieved from
             http://www.livescience.com/34655-human-heart.html

Introduction Post

My name is Alex Love and my major is Health Administration. I chose to pick a topic dealing with heart disease because heart disease has majorly affected my family. I hope the information people find in this blog will be useful.