Go Red! for Women Weekly Digest 0312

Last week, it was strongly advised that you visit www.goredforwomen.org/hearthealth and enter your numbers. Within approximately ten minutes, you will have your own personal set of numbers and risk factors for heart disease. With this information comes the power and responsibility needed for change.

In your hands, this checkup becomes a weapon against impairment or death. Contemplate the results. How do they make you feel? What can you learn from them? What questions do they provoke?Most importantly, what will you do with these pieces of information?

Here are some pieces of information to help you to decipher your pathway:

1. Total cholesterol levels should be lower than 200, better if below 150.

2. The LDL(lousycholesterol) ought to be below 100 and closer to 70.

3. The HDL(good cholesterol) ought to be above 45 for men, 55 for women.

4. Triglyceride levels ought to be below 150

5. Blood pressure should be around 120/80.

6. The four best health practices are: activity, diet, stressbusters, quitting smoking.

This is why the diet and exercise topic came up last week. Why? These are the two areas in which all of us have crucial input. We buy our own food and are responsible for our own locomotion. Therefore, the power is in our hands to fight off heart disease!

GO RED! FOR WOMEN HEART HEALTH CHECKLIST 0312:
1. Start taking a multivitamin.
2. Begin eating 3-5 vegetables and fruits daily.
3. Make an appointment with the doctor/followup appointment and get started with a PLAN to care for your heart!

With every heartfelt desire for your success, and
From my heart to yours,
Doula Angelita

Heart Health Ambassador

San Jose American Heart Association