The Heart Truth Campaign/Heart Disease Prevention

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/educational/hearttruth/
To make women more aware of the danger of heart disease, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and partner organizations are sponsoring a national campaign called The Heart Truth^®. The campaign's goal is to give women a personal and urgent wakeup call about their risk of heart disease.


Even With Heart Disease Awareness on the Rise, Prevention Remains Critically Important for American Women

Women can prevent heart disease by reducing their risk, and following a heart-healthy lifestyle. An annual physical can provide a risk factor numbers check — blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and, if appropriate, blood glucose — and the opportunity to start a discussion about physical activity levels and smoking to develop a personal plan to reduce their risk. Such a plan would incorporate heart healthy eating, getting regular physical activity, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking. Regardless of a woman's age, NHLBI research shows that it's never too early or too late to take action.

Heart Health: Diet, exercise are key
There are numerous aspects to personal living that help create a healthy heart, and over the past 30 years a tremendous amount of research has been dedicated to finding the ideal combination of diet, lifestyle, and physical fitness that will elicit positive heart health benefits.
Eating a balanced, well-rounded diet, low in saturated fats is known to be integral in decreasing the risk of blockages in blood vessels. Avoidance or cessation of smoking cigarettes decreases the risk of hardening of the arteries known as atherosclerosis. Living a more relaxed, less stressful lifestyle decreases the amount of stress hormones released that can negatively affect vascular tone and normal cardiac rhythm. Physical fitness, specifically cardiovascular training, improves all of those three aspects in and of itself.
Regular exercise performed at a moderate intensity has been shown to raise HDL (good cholesterol), decrease total triglycerides (fat) in the blood, decrease blood pressure, and decrease resting heart rate. Yet, a large portion of the population still avoids any significant daily activity.