Happy Valentine's Day & Heart Health Month

Happy Valentine's Day!  Did you find that perfect gift for your sweet heart?  Valentine's Day is one of the biggest holidays for candy and sweets (maybe 2nd to Halloween).  According to Nielsen, Americans will purchase around 58 million pounds of chocolate during the days leading up to the 14th,  and we shell out somewhere around $345 million to satisfy our Valentine's sweet tooth.   Flowers, chocolate and jewelry are some of the traditional gifts given today.  However, I think the best gift you can give to your loved one may be taking better care of your own heart.  February is not only for lovers, it is also American Heart Month.  You may have heard that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Over 800,000 people die from cardiovascular disease every year; that means, on average, someone dies every four minutes from some complication of heart disease.   The numbers of heart attacks are even scarier to me–almost every minute in the U.S. someone has a heart attack–and for those who survive the heart attack, they often have severe limitations as a result of the damage done to their heart! Their lives are changed forever.


Heart Health Fact:  Your Heart - The Hardest Working Muscle In Your Body 
Your heart - beats on average 100,000 times a day and pumps the equivalent of 2,000 gallons of blood each day. Imagine what a workhorse our hearts must be! So vital to our life and yet not well taken care of by most of us. 



Heart disease is costly, too, not only in terms of health care dollars but also in lost productivity.. However, the real kicker is that 80 percent of all heart disease is preventable. That means you have a choice. If you have high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, or are overweight, you are on the pathway to becoming a heart disease statistic.

So, let’s talk about what you can do starting today to put yourself on the path to prevention–keeping your heart healthy for your Valentine!

Here are the top 3 tips from Dr. Jamie McManus, Chairman, Shaklee Medical Affairs & Health Sciences :

• Control Your Blood Pressure and Cholesterol: Monitoring your own blood pressure is easy, and if anyone in your family has heart disease you should regularly check your blood pressure. Blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke and a major cause of heart attacks. Testing for cholesterol has also become easy and should at least be done once a year. I encourage you to exercise, eat plenty of fiber-rich vegetables and fruits, limit foods with saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol, and reduce the amount of salt you are consuming. There are great natural supports for both cholesterol and blood pressure, including fiber and plant sterols for cholesterol and fish oils, CoQ₁₀, and garlic for blood pressure. Be sure to follow up with your medical doctor to assess how you are doing with achieving good blood pressure control and healthy cholesterol levels.

• Appropriate Weight: The farther away you are from your ideal weight, the higher your risks are for heart disease and stroke. There are many tools to help you control your weight. Just be sure to pick a plan that is based on sound nutrition principles and helps you keep your lean body mass (muscles), and therefore your metabolism intact.

• Exercise: Physical fitness not only helps you to lower your weight, but it also helps to control blood pressure and cholesterol. Start slow and then work your way up to exercising a total of an hour a day. While an hour a day may seem like a lot, remember that exercise is cumulative; you don’t have to do it all at once. You can exercise 20 minutes in the morning, midday, and evening to get your hour. Walking is probably the best exercise that everyone can do.

While taking care of yourself is not a traditional gift for Valentine’s Day, it can be the very best gift because it keeps on giving for many years to come.


So in honor of February - Heart Health Month and Valentine's Day - Make sure you are taking special care of your most prized possession, your heart. Learn if you have any risk factors and take the necessary action to modify your risk - starting today. Start by following a heart healthy weight and inch loss plan and increasing your physical activity level. In addition, consider the use of heart-smart dietary supplements as added nutritional support. Incorporate soy protein and soluble fiber into your diet. Eat a diet rich in plant foods like whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, other lean protein and heart healthy fats. Be sure you are consuming adequate amounts of homocysteine lowering folic acid, Vitamins B6 and B12. Make sure to get plenty of omega-3 fatty acids. If you are concerned about contaminants in fresh fish, consider a pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplement that will bring you a full spectrum of omega-3 fatty acids including EPA for hearth health and DHA to support brain function. And don't forget about Coenzyme Q10, to prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, the form of cholesterol that makes up the plaque that builds up inside artery walls. People who take statin type drugs may be depleted in coenzyme Q10.

So, enjoy a few bites of mouth-watering dark chocolate on Valentine's Day (for its heart healthy polyphenols, of course) and then go for a walk with your "honey." Talk about your excitement about incorporating exercise, healthy eating and wise supplementation into your daily routine so that you can enjoy the coming year with energy and vitality--and the confidence that you are taking care of your heart.

Be well.