This February marks the 60th celebration of American Heart Month.
An engineering student cutting a board with a saw.
American Heart Month is a way to prompt Americans to develop healthy lifestyles and patterns to prevent heart diseases. Its purpose is to raise awareness of the risks that lead to heart disease, heart attacks and heart failures while also spreading information on how to intercept symptoms before it's too late.
This was initially declared in December 1963, by President Lyndon B. Johnson who suffered heart attacks because of smoking around 60 cigarettes a day. His near-death experience in 1955 inspired him to leave the cigarettes. Although he made a good recovery, Arteriosclerosis eventually took his life at age 64.
Heart disease has been the number one cause of death in America since the 1950s. High blood pressure and cholesterol, along with obesity and smoking, are elements that lead to heart disease.
Companies like the American Heart Association, American Red Cross, Children’s Heart Foundation and Women’s Heart Foundation all advocate for a healthy lifestyle and research to further improve medicine and technology.
For example, some Florida public schools host events like “Jump Rope for Heart” that raise donations and money for patient support programs and research funds.
With modern medicine and technology, it has been proven that in most cases of heart disease, arteriosclerosis is an underlying cause. Arteriosclerosis is when plaques of fat build on the walls of arteries and wreck their elasticity.
Heart disease is not caused by one specific gene but rather multiple that work together to increase the chances. Those sets of genes can be passed on through generations and formed into factors of high blood pressure or cholesterol.
To prevent heart disease, one should eat healthy, stay active, monitor blood pressure and cholesterol levels, avoid drugs, alcohol and smoking. With a healthy heart, a person should be able to keep a fast and steady pace while walking without pain or tightness in the chest to cause difficulty breathing.
To learn about the heart, a person can go to any website of the foundations previously mentioned and surf through their content. To go into even more depth, it's recommended to meet with your doctor about any symptoms or possibilities of heart issues.
Photos by Sofia De Cespedes
Comments