Valentine’s day is synonymous with love from the heart. That got me thinking about how many emotions we associate with the heart.  Love being the obvious one, but also when we are down (down-hearted / heart broken), put in a big effort (whole-hearted), or put in a poor effort (half-hearted) and so on.

So whilst we associate our heart with a number of emotional aspects of life, its prime role remains to keep us alive.  That means we really should give our hearts some love this Valentine’s day and, in fact,  every day.  Which brings me to my point.

Diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular disease) have a big impact on our community. In fact, about 4.2 million Australian adults have cardiovascular disease, and evidence suggests this number is growing each year. In addition, over 1 million people go to hospital each year because of a heart or blood vessel problem and nearly 30% of all the deaths in Australia can be attributed to cardiovascular disease.  Clearly, this is a very serious and very widespread problem.

The good thing is there are things we can all do things to reduce the risk and the seriousness of the impact.

If you want to protect yourself against heart disease there are seven key health measures that can predict future risk of heart problems. If you can manage these then your risk of cardiovascular disease decreases massively. These may be obvious and I’m sure you have heard them before.  But with heart disease remaining one of the biggest killers in our society and rising and today being the day of the heart, it’s worth mentioning one more time. The seven are:

• Don’t smoke
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Eat a healthy diet
• Stay active
• Maintain a healthy blood pressure
• Maintain healthy cholesterol levels
• Maintain healthy blood sugar levels

The first 4 are lifestyle choices that you can make all on your own.  The last three need to be measured and if they are not within the healthy range they require intervention.  Our pharmacist team and your doctor can help you steer you in regarding to assessment of these and necessary treatments.

It is important to take the time to look at the list and see what may apply to you.  If any of them do, and certainly if multiple ones do, then your heart is at risk and this can affect both the length and quality of your life.

We are always available to have a chat and help you out, so please get in touch with any questions.