Our hearts, the center of our being, our self professed repository of love, longing and desire, carry a heavy load - never more so, than today. With our more sedentary lifestyles, schedules, stress and fat saturated, sugar coated diet - the heart should quit. Often, it does. Sometimes our hearts are handicapped with a genetic defect. Many of these conditions, once detected, can be corrected with surgery. Mostly, we neglect our health. Cardiovascular health is serious.

The raw facts are:

429,000 women and 668,000 men suffer heart attacks each year. 24% of the men die, and 42% of these women die.

50% of all women's death is due to Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), more than three times the chance of death due to breast cancer.

Risk of CAD increases sharply in men after 50 years of age and after menopause for women.

What are the main risk factors?

Age. This natural process is unstoppable, but healthy habits and age enhancement medicine CAN SLOW IT DOWN, extend the quality of your life and reduce the most ravaging effects.

Smoking. In addition to emphysema and lung cancer, smoking constricts the vessels of the heart and starves it of oxygen. People who smoke have 3-5 times the risk of having a heart attack than people who don't. It takes up to 5 years for the heart to recover from the damages of smoking.

Obesity. Over 50% of people over the age of 40 are overweight. The heart is working overtime, trying to force blood through increasingly clogged arteries, raising your blood pressure, and increasing your risk for having a stroke. Strokes can reduce mental acuity and cause paralyzation.

Increased Lipids. Those tasty, unnecessary villains add inches to our waistline. Comprised of Total Cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides, they can be fought with exercise, low fat foods and weight loss. Medications are available for extra help.

Hypertension. Increases risk of CAD by 200% to 300%. Want to have blood pressures of less than 140 over 90. If diabetic, your blood pressure should be maintained below 130/80. There is a new category known as pre-hypertensive syndrome. This is where the blood pressure falls between 130/80 and 140/90. For these individuals weight loss, exercise, low sodium diet, smoking cessation, limiting alcohol and caffeine consumption is recommended to get back into the acceptable range.

Diabetes Mellitus. Lowering our weight, exercising and improving our nutrition helps avoid diabetes. Untreated, diabetes can lead to blindness and amputation of limbs.

Lack of Exercise. Exercise leads to weight loss, improved lipid levels and decreased blood pressure plus better control of blood sugar in diabetics. Two hours of brisk walking A WEEK can reduce your risk of CAD by up to 70%.

Menopause for Women. Hormone replacement therapy, using estrogen or progestin has been called into doubt the last three years due to the results of the Women's Health Initiative Study.

Our hearts are a wonder of engineering.

Our hearts will beat over an estimated 2.8 billion times and pump over 45 million gallons throughout our lifetimes. I want to maximize the quality of your life. Your heart is vital, yet most people largely ignore it ... until too late.

Cardiovascular disease takes a long time to develop. With few exceptions, early onset of heart disease is preventable. Once developed, it is not curable - only "managed".

So we must ask: Do you want to "manage" your life, or truly live it?

For those who prefer "management", we may need to discuss a three pill a day regimen, your increasing weakness, and referrals to my favorite cardiologists, endocrinologists and neurologists.

For those who wish to enjoy their longer lives, my advice is to STOP SMOKING, walk your dog or take up some physical activity, get some sleep, and eliminate high fat, high sodium foods. LOSE WEIGHT.

Life is also for sharing good times with friends, reading stories to your children, and rediscovering your husband or wife. Sharing good times with a special someone works magic on the heart. Emotional stress and anxiety wears the heart down. A good night's sleep, and twice daily dose of kindness and love, can be the cure.

One final note, after age 35, you should obtain a cardiac baseline to use as a yardstick for your cardiovascular health. See your physician once a year and see how you measure up. Your heart matters - so do you. Go on... live a little... or a lot!

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