February is National Heart Month. Take some time to assess your heart health and then make the needed changes to decrease your risk for cardiovascular disease.
The American Heart Association has an online tool called My Life Check® to help you assess your health. The survey asks questions about seven areas of your health. The results tell you where you are excelling and how you can make improvements.
“We can all make some changes in our health habits that will not only make us feel better, they will decrease our risk for heart attack,” said Tammy Roberts, nutrition and health education specialist with University of Missouri Extension.
The American Heart Association also developed Life’s Simple 7 which are steps you can take to improve heart health and live better. They include:
- Get active
- Control cholesterol
- Eat better
- Manage blood pressure
- Lose weight
- Reduce blood sugar
- Stop smoking
For more in-depth tips on how you can improve your health in these 7 areas, plus information on the warnings signs of heart attack and stroke, see the full version of this article at http://missourifamilies.org/
