Pete Mendoza | Vaquero Radio
According to the National Institute of Health, the leading cause of death in the world is heart disease. American Heart Month aims to create awareness of diseases such as coronary heart disease and heart failure.
Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Dr. David Goff said individuals should stay on top of their health.
“It’s important that people understand their own heart health condition, their risk for heart disease and what they can do to improve their heart health and reduce their risk of heart disease across the lifespan,” Goff said.
The heart is the muscle that pumps blood throughout the entire body, providing nutrients and oxygen to all cells.
Marketing sophomore Jesus Alvarez said the heart is one of our key organs.
“It’s one of the main organs that we have [in] our body,” Alvarez said. “Basically, the one that has everything under control and the one that distributes the blood.”
Goff said most heart diseases can be prevented with healthy lifestyle choices.
“It starts with eating a healthy diet,” he said. “So, real food is food that your grandmother would have recognized as food when she went to the store 40, 50 years ago.”
Integrated health science freshman Yuliet Sosa said watching what you consume can improve heart health.
“It’s basically on the foods you eat and not basically doing drugs or alcohol,” Sosa said.
Goff said two other ways to keep the heart healthy are staying active and getting the right amount of sleep so the body can restore itself.
He said paying attention to metrics such as body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, is a smart way to understand what the body needs.
Goff said that individuals should not wait to be proactive about managing their health.
“You might think that you have time to wait, think about your heart health when you get older, but it’s actually never too early,” he said.
For more information on heart health, visit nhlbi.nih.gov.
