JBInvolved

About Me

So I’ve been talking, rather hounding, my husband about eating better and being more active. I would like to have a life partner not one I lose at a very young age. You see he is slightly overweight with high cholesterol and high blood pressure and he turns 30 this year. He also has a family history of diabetes and he is not very active. He scares me. I have seen 35 year old men come into the emergency room with a severe heart attack or stroke and die within hours. These men come in with the same physical history as my husband.

I have signed up to be a speaker for the American Heart Association to spread the word about heart healthy living. This goes hand in hand with donation. The difference is, my patients are those people that chose not to live a healthy life. Now I have a husband that is at risk, dare I say, of being an organ donor from a cholesterol clot moving to his brain and causing a stroke. Not only that risk but high blood pressure causes your heart to work harder and eventually slow down causing blood to be stagnant and form a clot. That clot then becomes dislodged and moves to the brain, guess what, causing a stroke. Ugh, it is really not that hard to take care of yourself people.

Risk factors for heart attack and stroke are essentially the same. There are those you can’t control: increasing age, sex, race, previous heart attack or stroke, and family history. There are factors that you have complete control over: high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, high blood cholesterol, sedentary lifestyle, obesity and diabetes. What people aren’t thinking about is that all of these factors are also increasing your risk for becoming brain dead and your family having to make a decision to donate your organs. Some very sick person will thank you for your inability to save yourself from yourself but your loved ones, I’m afraid, are not going to be so grateful.

Everyone needs to get it out of their head that fad dieting and extreme exercise is the answer to all their health and weight loss problems. Yes I agree that being at a healthy weight for your body and being active is one of the most important things you can do for yourself but there are right and wrong ways of going about it.

Please visit the American Heart Association site and learn what you can do to save yourself and enjoy your life and family for as long as possible. Don’t be the one that couldn’t prevent themselves from dying young.

I apologize if I am being harsh. Feel free to contact me with any questions.