Good health habits start young and we all know that children watch adults very closely. Parents can hardly expect their children to live a healthy lifestyle if they themselves don’t. Yet, despite this, the message of healthy living starts early doesn’t seem to be getting out.
According to a study done by the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association (PCNA),

The national survey revealed that more than three in five (61%) Americans incorrectly believe that the processes related to heart disease do not begin until adulthood.

Alarmingly, fewer than four in ten (38%) correctly surmise that people should be concerned about living a heart-healthy lifestyle to prevent a future heart attack beginning in childhood, and continuing throughout every life stage.

What more do healthcare professionals have to do to get the message across? Do we need Big Brother to start telling us what to do? There are already pushes to highly tax junk food and soda drinks. Some places are pushing the idea of tax breaks or financial health to promote physical activity. Will parents not do this unless there’s a financial incentive? Going for walks, playing in the park, using stairs instead of escalators or elevators are not cost-intensive.

Here is some of the information the research turned up:

•    Less than a third of Americans follow a heart-healthy diet
•    70% of parents say they wouldn’t want their children to copy their eating habits
•    26% of the time, parents feel they don’t make good food choices, setting a bad example
•    44% say that sometimes they don’t make healthy food choices, setting a bad example

To learn more about this study and its findings, check out this press release: Americans concerned about heart health, but not proactive enough to prevent it.

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Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Healthbolt

It’s Healthbolt Carnival time again. A day late but worth the wait. So grab that coffee and start clicking…

Robert Burton Robinsonfrom Mind Over Mania looks at 9 Ways Yoga Makes You Younger.

Mert Erkal from Hugepedia.com suggests some interesting ways of Finding Time to Exercise.

Britannica Blog from Britannica Blog lists the Top 10 Myths About Anorexia.

Evan Pfaff from Who’s In First Blog looks at Home Exercise Equipment.

Cory from Eating Healthy looks at Exercising in a Recession with some tips to get good, fun exercise for cheap.

Dan Abshear from Informaproject offers some Thoughts About The Influenza Virus.

Dr Tooth from WorlDental reports on Stress-Free Teeth Treatment Services In Dental Spas.

Tristan from Body And Fitness Blog suggests Running In The Evening To Burn Fat.

Randy Powell from Eating-Veggies.com: High Alkaline Diet blog asks Are Alkaline Foods Right For You?.

Michael Molloy from One Step To Fitness.com wants to Make Fitness Fun.

Joel Gray from Health Tips 101 looks at Tips And Tricks To Staying Healthy As We Get Older.

Ashley Cook from Frugal Girl provides some Quick Home Meal Ideas.

Cyndi from Evolution Ezine?Evolution Ezine – Collect your free mind power and self growth gifts has some Anxiety/Stress Relief techniques.

Kara-Leah Grant from Prana Flow NZ discusses yoga in Witnessing the evolution of yoga from Vinyasa to Prana Flow to Flow Motion to Your Yoga.

Den Levin from Battle Anxiety has six self-help Tips For Hypochondriacs.

And James Colquhoun from FOODMATTERS. writes about Heart Disease Prevention Made Easy.

That’s it for this edition of the Healthbolt Carnival.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of healthbolt carnival using this carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: a healthbolt carnival, blog carnival.

Post from: Healthbolt

We’ve been talking quite a bit about the intriguing topic of longevity lately. And if living to a ripe old age is on your “To Do” list, you may want to consider gaining a higher education.

So, does that mean those with a college degree will live longer than their less-educated counterparts? Perhaps.

Epidemiologists from the American Cancer Society and scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) teamed up to analyze the data and death certificate information of more than three and a half million deaths which occurred between 1993 and 2001. During that time period, an evident gap emerged between those in different educational brackets. The most educated folks saw a significant decrease in death rates from causes such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, etc, while the death rates for the least educated groups remained nearly unchanged.

This is the first study to look at recent socioeconomic inequality trends concerning death rates from all causes, as well as from several of the leading causes of death in the U.S.

Potential contributors to this discrepancy? Less educated folks have fewer financial resources to help them stay healthy, including health insurance and stable employment, and they also tend to be less educated on health matters. What’s more, this group is three times more likely to be a current smoker than those with college degrees. And with smoking comes issues like heart disease, lung disease and cancer.

With such an unnerving discovery, we’re left wondering: what can be done to change this?

What would you do if you were the president? How would you bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots, at least from a health standpoint? Or is this issue simply too far gone and hopeless? Weigh in – we’d love to hear your ideas…

More reading:
The Washington Post
American Cancer Society

Image: Newscom

Post from: Healthbolt

February 1st is National Wear Red Day throughout America. Forget your usual working suit and dig out that red dress, shirt or tie and put it on.  Wear red to indicate your awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women. And I’m not talking broken heart here. Believe it or not, you can recover from a broken heart (How to Get Over a Broken Heart).

I’m talking about coronary heart disease which usually develops over many years causing narrowing and blocking of the arteries. If undetected and untreated it can easily result in heart attack and death. 

Here’s some scary statistics:

• Heart disease is the #1 killer of American women.
• One in every three women dies of heart disease. One in 30 dies of breast cancer.
• Women’s heart disease risk starts to rise in middle age.
• About 3 million American women have had a heart attack.
• Two-thirds of American women who have had a heart attack don’t make a full recovery.
• Nearly two-thirds of American women who die suddenly of a heart attack had no prior symptoms.
• Americans can lower their risk of heart disease by as much as 82 percent just by leading a healthy lifestyle.
• Awareness of heart disease as the leading cause of death has increased from 30 percent in 1997 to 46 percent in 2003.
• Only 20 percent of women consider heart disease to be their own greatest health risk.

Risk factors for heart disease are:

• Smoking
• High blood pressure
• High blood cholesterol
• Overweight/obesity
• Physical inactivity
• Diabetes
• Family history of early coronary heart disease
• Age (for women, 55 and older)

What you can do now to reduce the risk…

• stop smoking
• eat healthy
• exercise
• yearly checkups for women (and men) over the age of 40.

(source of photos and facts)

Post from: Healthbolt