The start of a new school year is the perfect time to get back into a healthy schedule — enough rest, enough exercise, healthy food, and good habits. Starting tomorrow, the EmpowerMEnt Challenge of the American Heart Association calls on families to start preventing heart disease in the next generation — right now and at […]

“Heart disease is a lifestyle disease that can be largely prevented through healthy choices.” You may have seen that phrase or heard it — I certainly have, and to some extent it is true for those privileged enough to have choices. But what about those for whom there are no choices — who live without […]

Go Red for Women celebrates its 10th birthday this year. In the 10 years since Go Red for Women and The Heart Truth began raising awareness of women’s risk of heart disease, more than 330 women per day were saved. That’s almost 14 women per hour, per day, for 10 years. Women’s awareness of the […]

Welcome to American Heart Month! I am partnering with The Heart Truth, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s women’s heart health initiative to take the myHeart28 challenge this month. I hope you’ll join me. It’s easy, just complete one simple task a day (today’s is “do squats for one minute”). Share the challenge and […]

I met Maria at the first Go Red for Women event that I spoke at, last November. She came right up to me and said she’d been reading my blog and wanted to meet me. (Fellow bloggers know how thrilling that is!) We talked for a while and she asked about my kids and how […]

Now this is exciting. Running friends, get your GU and Body Glide ready, because it’s time to train for a marathon! This year, for the first time, the American Heart Association of Minnesota will field a charity team for the Twin Cities Marathon. Yours truly is serving as the honorary chair. (Honorary for a lot […]

I follow a lot of heart news, blogs, doctors, medical journals, and conferences. I read the headlines, and usually, the articles. I follow the footnotes to the original study. I have learned a ton about my disease, and I have learned how to read between the lines. There are some factoids that are very odd, […]

High blood pressure, the silent killer. High blood pressure often has no symptoms at all. The only way to know your risk is to have it taken frequently and know what’s right for your body. If it is too high, reduce your salt intake, increase your exercise, and talk to your doctor. What you don’t […]

Being overweight is a separate risk factor from high blood pressure, or diabetes, or even physical inactivity, and it is not a fun one to talk about (as if any of them are). But being overweight (which I have been) always feels more like its about everything else — how I look, how I feel […]

Physical inactivity is a separate risk factor from being overweight or having diabetes, though it is certainly involved with those issues. You could be thin and still at risk for heart disease. Exercise just makes sense. It is going to lower your stress levels, improve your strength, strengthen your cardiovascular system, and probably help you […]