Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/640629
Heart Health fo a Lifetime Small choices you make today can reap big rewards down the road. February is American Heart Month, but here's how you can celebrate heart health all year long — and for many years to come. + Establish a medical home. Develop a relationship with a primary care physician and start scheduling yearly wellness visits. + Ditch the smokes for good. The sooner you kick that bad college habit, the better. Within one year of quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease will drop by half. By the time you reach your 40s, your risk will be the same as if you had never smoked. + Practice active parenting. Get off the playground bench for a few rounds of tag. Help your son hone his dribbling skills with some one-on-one basketball. Volunteer to coach your daughter's soccer team. Find ways to make your kids' active lifestyles your own. + Keep track of your numbers. From career changes to growing children, your 30s are anything but routine. It's easy to let your annual wellness visits fall by the wayside, but it is more important now than ever to stay on top of your health numbers and understand what they mean. (Check the next page for a list of numbers you should know.) Despite heart disease causing more deaths every year than any other disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it's often the last thing on our minds. "I'll get serious about my heart when I turn 40," we tell ourselves. Then 40 turns into 50, 50 turns into 60, and before you know it, you've been diagnosed with heart disease. Instead of procrastinating, why not start making small changes now? Find out which simple steps you can take to avoid a critical situation later in life. Make it count by investing in a fi tness tracker. In a study published in September 2015, women who used mobile fi tness trackers clocked an additional 38 minutes of activity per week. 20 30 4 christussetx.org