Heart Health at Any Age

February brings cupid, love and hearts to our door.  Valentine’s Day lets us celebrate those we love, and while we’re focused on affairs of the heart, let’s look at the health of your heart. This month is American Heart Month—a great time to think about what you can do to keep yours ticking away for years to come.

USA Today featured a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine this week. The study followed patients of both genders, black and white, at a variety of ages, and measured them for the four major heart disease risks: smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. This information was then compared to their likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke by age 80. The findings were not surprising: the healthier your heart is when you’re younger, the less likely you are to have a heart attack later in life.

Midlife, in fact, seems to be a strong determining factor. If you have not developed high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and are a non-smoker at age 45, you are much less likely to have a heart attack or stroke by age 80 than your less-healthy peers, with only a 1.4% chance of having a cardiac problem. If you have just two risk factors at age 45, though, your chances of having a heart attack or stroke jump to 49.5%! These statistics held true regardless of the race or gender of the study participant.

Does this mean that if you’re past 45 and have risk factors that nothing can be done? Absolutely not! Another finding from the study is that heart health can be improved no matter what your age. The impact of any of the risk factors can be lessened with treatment and changes in lifestyle. And certainly, the younger you are, the earlier you can take charge of your heart and its health. The sooner you incorporate heart-healthy habits into your life, the better your long-term outcome. Starting now—whatever your age—to stop smoking, eat a healthier diet, exercise, and manage conditions such as diabetes, only increases the odds that you will not have a heart attack or stroke later in life.

So this February, take charge of your heart health! And let us know—what heart-healthy steps are working for you?

 

Photo by: wellunwell

Keys to Success in Fighting Obesity

The CDC recently announced that obesity rates have leveled off in the past 10 years. This is both good and bad news. On one hand, our overall obesity rates haven’t increased; on the other hand, neither have they decreased. Despite numerous campaigns aimed at encouraging healthy eating and weight loss, more than two-thirds of the U.S. population is either overweight or obese, an alarming statistic with huge implications for the health and well-being of our country.

In a related article, The San Antonio Express-News stated that it is much too early to celebrate the small victory that at least we are no worse. The article acknowledges that while we’ve seen shifts in society, policy, and education toward becoming more healthy, it will take a long time for those changes to filter down into the general population. It further observes that “…now is the time to double-down on how we prevent and control obesity, and how we interpret the results of those efforts.”

TheAcademy.com’s founder and CEO, Jay B. Rea, shares his insights on the importance of education-based health and wellness programs and their potential to change the perceptions of those needing to lose weight. In it Rea observes that there are five keys to any successful lifestyle change—including weight loss:

• Decide what to change
• Learn why to make that change
• Learn how to break the status quo
• Commit to a plan to make the change easier
• Get support and encouragement while making the change

In the case of obesity, you decide you are going to lose weight. You learn that being overweight can lead to a number of health problems that you’d rather avoid. You learn how to break your current habits so that you operate from a new mindset and perceive your choices and actions in a different way. Then you make a commitment plan to reinforce your new choices. Along the way, you let family and friends know of your decision and ask them to give you support in your healthier choices. Your five keys to success are in place!

What are you doing to make healthy changes part of your life? Have you ever used one or all of the five keys to lifestyle change?

Staying Motivated and Tackling the January Blues

This time of year, many of us are feeling a bit down. Gray winter weather, holiday fun behind us, credit card bills in the mailbox, it’s time to start thinking about taxes—and we realize how far short we are in keeping our New Year’s Resolutions. Is it any wonder some people feel a bit unmotivated as January clicks by?

The best way to overcome the lack of motivation is to take action. You don’t have to fix everything at once, but taking any small step toward your goal can re-energize and revitalize your focus and get you back on track.

In an article featured this month in Corporate Health and Wellness Magazine,  we discuss the role education plays in meeting health-related goals. We know how hard it is to get motivated to quit smoking, lose weight or start an exercise program. Lifelong habits, favorite comfort foods, the desire to sleep in and instinctive reactions to stress seem like huge obstacles to overcome, and who has the time or energy to climb those mountains?

There are a myriad of programs that say “just do it,”—start this eating plan, wear this patch, join our gym. However, education specialists know that this only goes so far. Educational designers have shown that awareness of a problem is a key to changing it. That knowledge must be coupled with a plan of action, and is even stronger when there is some kind of reinforcement. But you must first be aware of the problem. Motivation often develops from understanding there’s an issue to be tackled and then being given the weapons to win the fight.

As you begin to meet your goals, the satisfaction you receive from that accomplishment becomes its own motivating factor. Before you know it, you’re making healthier choices on a consistent basis.

It doesn’t have to be rocket science. It can be as simple setting a reminder on your computer or smartphone to go to the gym after work (acknowledging the problem), making a commitment to get to the gym (a plan of action),  and seeing a more toned reflection in the mirror (positive reinforcement).

So what are you doing to beat the January doldrums? What has worked for you when you need to get motivated to do something?

Here’s to getting back on track and kicking those January blues!

 

Photo by designsbykari

Put Yourself First and Feel Good About It

We know, we know…your inbox, the Internet, your favorite news source, they are chock full of stories about setting and keeping your New Year’s resolutions. We’ve even written about the power of setting intent with a New Year’s resolution.

You may have reached a point where you are so tired of hearing about resolutions that you don’t make one yourself. And that’s okay – it’s understandable.

Let’s look at it from another standpoint: how about deciding to put yourself first.

It is so easy in our day-to-day life to ignore ourselves. You start running on autopilot. You’ve got to feed the kids, get them off to school; take care of the house, pets, bills; support a spouse or partner; worry about job stresses. Before you know it, you have completely ignored yourself.

So why is it so hard for people to take care of themselves first?

Many people suggest that a sense of guilt takes over and you start to feel selfish for putting your needs first or taking care of yourself.  The result of this feeling is that you become over stressed, unhealthy, and truly not as helpful to your loved ones, friends and job as you could be.

So imagine how the problems compound if you are already overweight, have high blood pressure, smoke, etc…. The amount of stress you are putting on yourself only adds to the amount you eat, an increase in the number of cigarettes consumed, a reduction in the amount of exercise you get each week, or causes you a lack of sleep.

According to an article on SparkPeople, we all need to remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: human beings must meet their basic needs before they can move on to higher-level goals.

The author of this article offers a few guidelines to get started:

• Preserve your physical health with adequate sleep, exercise, and nutrition.
• Value your emotional health as much as the physical, with a support system of friends and a willingness to laugh—especially at yourself.
• Schedule fun activities on a regular basis—it’s just as important to plan pleasure as it is to plan work.
• Identify “busy behaviors” (or people) that drain your time and energy but aren’t really important, then dump ‘em, or at least minimize their hold on you.
• Kill two birds with one stone, combining family time with exercise, for example, which benefits everyone involved.
• Try to look at the problems in your life with new eyes to find solutions. If you’re a new mom, for instance, see if you can trade childcare with another new mom to get some time for yourself.
• Learn to say “No!” Your “yes” is valuable and should not be automatic. Instead, reserve it for the things that are most important to you.
• Don’t try to change every problem area in your life all at once. Start with one or two items, then expand as you get things under control.

Start with these baby steps to getting YOU back on track. Then arm yourself with the education you need to make your positive behaviors a habit that allows you to put yourself first.  Check back with us next week to learn more about how education can help you help yourself.

photo by: steven depolo