going deeper

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, we’re all thinking about the ones who make our hearts flutter – but you might not be thinking about your heart health. In fact, women in-particular tend to put-off hearth health.

Women often think of heart disease as mostly affecting older men, but heart disease affects women at startlingly high rates. In fact:

• Heart disease is the number one killer of women and causes 1 in 3 deaths every year.
• 90 percent of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease.

Men and women share many of the same risk-factors for heart disease like smoking, high cholesterol and blood pressure, lack of exercise, type 2 diabetes, family history and obesity.

However, women can have some unique risk-factors for heart disease.

• Pregnancy related conditions like pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and gestational hypertension,
• Birth control use with a history of smoking and
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

The best way for women to stay heart-healthy is to follow these tips.

• Exercise regularly – at least three to five days per week
• Eat a healthy diet that is low in saturated fat, sugar and sodium and high in vegetables, whole-grains and lean protein
• Manage stress through meditation/mindfulness, exercise, prayer, a hobby or talking with a healthcare provider or clergy member.

Visit AdventistHealthCare.com/WGTS to take a FREE online heart-health risk assessment and learn your risk for heart disease. You'll also be entered to win a two-night stay at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort in Cambridge, Maryland.

Official Prize Drawing Rules:

To be entered into the drawing for a chance to win the prizes, participants:

*Must complete Adventist HealthCare’s FREE Heart Risk Assessment between 12:01 a.m. on February 1 and midnight on February 28, 2019.

*Must live in the immediate Maryland/Washington, DC/Virginia Metropolitan area.

*Are limited to one entry in the drawing.

*Must not be an employee or family member of an employee of the following organizations: Adventist HealthCare or its affiliates, WGTS or other businesses participating in the heart month campaign.