Heart Health on Valentine’s Day

This Valentine’s Day, consider your heart.

That’s the message from the Wyoming Department of Health, which points out that older individuals are not the only ones who should learn about heart disease risks and take steps to keep their hearts healthy and pumping.

According to the Wyoming Department of Health, heart disease is America’s leading cause of death and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us it is unfortunately happening to younger adults more frequently than in the past. Dr. Alexia Harrist, state health officer and epidemiologist, says that high obesity rates, high cholesterol and high blood pressure among younger people ages 35-64 are putting them at risk for heart disease earlier in life than we might expect.

Harrist noted half of all Americans have at least one of the top three risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking. And according to 2017 Wyoming Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, 136,000 Wyoming men and women have been told they have high blood pressure, and 113,000 Wyoming adults had been told they had high blood cholesterol.

The department points out that by eating healthfully, getting enough physical activity, not smoking and staying at a healthy weight, heart disease can be avoided.