National Heart Month – A Chance to Take Control of Our Health

Some of you may remember the infamous photograph in 1964 of President Johnson lifting his pet beagle, Him, by his ear. It caused an outpouring of concern from dog lovers everywhere and caused the President much embarrassment. I was only 16 years old at the time but still remember the debacle. It’s unfortunate that I remember that fact about President Johnson but had no idea that also in 1964 he started a great tradition that has had much more impact on people’s lives than the unfortunate dog incident. He issued the first proclamation that February would be National Heart Month and every President since then has continued that tradition. It has helped America focus on important steps we can take to keep our hearts healthy.

This month may be the most important National Heart Month since 1964. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a huge negative impact on America’s heart health. For instance, many people, especially the more vulnerable older population, have:

• Postponed or cancelled important doctor appointments.
• Developed or reverted back to unhealthy eating.
• Stopped or reduced exercise routines.
• Become more anxious about the threat this virus has become to our health and our very lives, a threat that we have had little control over.

This month, National Heart Month, is a great time to come out of the darkness of the last 11 months and see the light of hope and renewed effort to keep our hearts healthy. While we still have a long way to go to rid ourselves of this terrible virus, we need to remember that we have highly effective vaccines that have already been administered to many healthcare workers and older Americans (I get my second shot in two days). This vaccine will free us to not be afraid to go to the doctor, get off the couch and get outside and get back together with our vaccinated friends. We can even start planning a trip for later this year. We still need to listen to what are scientists are saying, there could be setbacks, but I’m convinced we have every reason to be hopeful that we’re on the way back.

Our heart is our bodies’ most important organ and National Heart Month gives us an opportunity to focus on the things that can help us stay heart healthy. According to the American Heart Association (AHA) heart disease is still the greatest health threat to Americans and is the leading cause of death worldwide. The sad thing is there are many things we can do to avoid this deadly disease. According to the AHA, in most cases, heart disease is preventable when people adopt a healthy lifestyle, which includes not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, controlling blood sugar and cholesterol, treating high blood pressure, getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week and getting regular checkups. This year the pandemic has prompted the AHA to create "Don't Die of Doubt," a national awareness campaign that reminds people that hospitals are the safest place to go when you have symptoms. High blood pressure is the enemy of our heart health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has some great tools that help us identify and control our blood pressure. There are many places that we can get the information we need to get and stay healthy.

It's time for us to get back control of our lives and our health. Unfortunately, I think this pandemic has caused us to sometimes think we have lost control of our lives, that we are slaves to the restrictive rules and regulations that are needed to keep us safe. We need to decide that we are the masters of ourselves and we can decide to be healthy, pandemic or no pandemic. We now have the hope of highly effective vaccines. Let’s use National Heart Month as the launching point to better health.

Best, Thair