Why Do We Celebrate American Heart Month

American Heart Month

Since heart disease is the leading cause of death in Americans, it stands to reason that we should celebrate American Heart Month, a time that is devoted to heart health around the country. The month of February is devoted to heart health around the country, with doctors, community health services and private citizens doing their best to get the word out about how to better take care of our hearts and ourselves.

With almost a million people being stricken with heart attacks, disease or death every year, it’s about time that the public in general was educated about various heart conditions that can severely inhibit quality of life or cause tragic, and sometimes unnecessary death. Every heart-health subject from high cholesterol to coronary heart disease is talked about, written about or heard about during American Heart Month every year. Knowing something about your heart, how it works, how it reacts to particular conditions and how to prevent some heart diseases and conditions is the main thrust of educational topics offered during American Heart Month. Sponsored by major health organizations like the American Heart Association and the Center for Disease Control, American Heart Month certainly helps get the point across to millions of Americans through a variety of venues.

Every February, the American Heart Association initiates programs and tools that help Americans to determine if they might be at risk for heart trouble, and this year has instituted a National Body Challenge. A national campaign called Go Red For Women has challenged one million women to wear red and take action against their highest rated killer by getting a heart check up. Offered online, this cyber checkup offers an assessment of heart health and your risks of contracting any form of heart disease and how to prevent heart disease.

American Heart Month is a time to educate everyone, young and old, about the importance of taking care of your heart, and schools across the country hold events for heart disease research and Jump for Heart programs throughout the United States. The media is inundated with television commercials and magazine ads proclaiming the importance of heart health in Americans, and shows us ways to ensure healthy hearts. Communities around the country hold special events, seminars and special classes that instruct Americans how to best offset heart disease by explaining good eating habits, the benefits of exercise and staying way from drinking, smoking and drugs to promote healthy hearts.

American Heart Month is an opportunity for all doctors, nurses and health care professionals to inform, teach and otherwise instruct both young and old Americans to take care of their hearts. It is understood that by taking steps on their own to insure healthy hearts, Americans can save millions of dollars spent every year on medications, doctors, surgeries and hospital stays. Taking control of heart health can ease the financial burden felt by government programs as well as private pocketbooks. American Heart Month encourages people to get heart screening and tests done that will help prevent mild conditions such as high cholesterol from becoming more serious conditions like coronary heart disease, and often offer testing at reduced prices or even for free at community health locations around the country.

Americans have the power to learn, to promote heart research and to prevent many medical conditions through information and action. Both heart attack survivors and those who have helped to save them celebrate American Heart Month every February. Your heart beats an entire lifetime, and it’s up to each individual to recognize that fact. American Heart Month reminds us that hearts aren’t invincible, and it’s up to us to take care of each and every one of them.

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