Heart Disease....

                        

 The following has been written by a guest writer. It is very interesting. Read on:   

 Heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States since the 1970’s. Surely someone you know, perhaps a relative has died from a heart attack.  This serious and often preventable disease continues to take the lives of over 2,000 people every day. Also people without heart disease are expected to live more than 10 years longer than those who have heart disease.

 Shockingly, our generation is the first in the history of the world, expected to NOT live longer than the previous generation. This means we are projected to die before our parents!  How can this be? Technology and medical science are so well advanced.

The answer is surprisingly simple. The biggest cause of heart disease is lack of exercise and over eating. I would like to share with you today some thought provoking information.

              

Studies show that nearly 32% of people do not exercise at all in any given week.  This means they are only doing activities of everyday living, like house cleaning, walking to the rest room, etc. Less than 20% of the US population reported that they exercise once or twice a week. Currently, 50% of Americans report exercise at least 3 or more times a week. The American Heart Association recommends that people should exercise at least 3 times for 30 minutes per week. They also stress the importance of raising your heart rate and breaking a sweat.
 Heart disease varies by ethnicity. Caucasians  have the highest percentages of deaths which is 25.1%. African Americans come in second with 24.4%. Asians or Pacific Islanders come in third with 23.2%. Hispanics come in fourth with 20.7%. American Indians or Alaska Native come in last with 17.9%. 
Also, a whopping 65% of Americans are overweight which increase heart disease risk.

A typical American eats out at some type of restaurant several times in a given week. Let me give you some examples.  A large hamburger such as a Big Mac, fries, and a drink is well over 1,000 calories which is half of a regular intake of calories in one meal! A typical meal should only contain about 500 calories so the Big Mac meal is doubled what a normal meal should be.

We also have problems with portion sizes. The food portions have grown dramatically. We eat larger portions increasing our calorie intake

                 

The calories you burn while sitting is only 68, compared to burning 240 calories while walking and 250 calories while biking. So you are burning more than four times the amount of calories burned when compared to sitting. If you feel motivated pull out the Roller Blades because you can burn more than 900 calories per hour. Whatever you do for exercise, it needs to be it needs to be something you enjoy so you do it often.  Burning calories is the key to weight loss!  weight loss is the key to prevent heart disease.

In order to be successful, some things you can do are exercise with a friend, schedule a time to do it, make a goal, listen to music, and try different activities.

One huge benefit from exercise is cholesterol reduction. Cholesterol is a type of blood fat that can be dangerous to your health. When there is too much, it will clog and completely block off blood vessels. If this happens in the heart it is known as a heart attack. If it happens in the brain it is known as a stroke. If one of these things has happened in your family, it will likely happen to you if you don’t exercise consistently throughout your life.

This morning I ate a bowl of cereal with milk. It was essentially 300 calories. I would need to walk for over an hour to burn that amount of calories. Let’s return to the meal of a hamburger, fries and soda. I would need to exercise at least 4 hours to burn that amount of calories. So think of a person that eats a meal like that every day for lunch. They are adding lots of calories and blood vessel clogging fat to their body. Over the years this adds up and causes lifelong heart disease. So the problem isn’t eating one meal of hamburger and fries every once in a while but eating it daily combined with little to no exercise.                                                                        Playing sports is a way to have fun and burn calories at the same time. For example, if you played in a football game you burned 526 calories. In a basketball game you would burn 598 calories. And during a soccer game you would burn 821 calories. Also, if you go sledding for 2 hours you could burn up to 749 calories.  

Any sport can become a hobby that will let you exercise in a fun way for the rest of your life. For example, I personally love to play soccer. I have played it for the past 11 years. It is one of those sports you can play lifelong from beginner to expert. It has all the attributes to be successful such as playing with a friend, setting a time, setting a goal, and it’s fun. I have soccer practice on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday for an hour to an hour and a half. Then I usually have games on Thursday and Saturday for 90 minutes which means I exercise 6 out of the 7 days of the week.

So as you can see, not only exercising consistently throughout your life and eating healthy too can make a big difference for your heart. It can ensure a high quality of life. Which means you can do the activities you want and enjoy without restrictions. If you choose to be sedentary, you will likely end up with a slow painful death.