Did you know, every year, the health care system cares for more than 1.5 million people who suffered a heart attack or stroke?

But there are things you can do to lower your risk.

As part of Heart Health Month, I thought I would visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website to see what I could find out about heart disease and keeping your heart healthy.

The hard facts

The CDC lays it out clearly that heart disease is not something to fool around it. Here are some staggering statistics:

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

• One person dies every 34 seconds in the U.S. from cardiovascular disease.

• Heart disease cost the U.S. about $229 billion each year from 2017 to 2018. This includes the cost of health care services, medicines, and lost productivity due to death.

• Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, killing 382,820 people in 2020.

• In the U.S., someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds; and every year, about 805,000 people have a heart attack.

• About 1 in 5 heart attacks are silent, meaning the damage is done, but the person is not aware of it.

Risks of heart disease

The CDC says there are several factors that can increase or decrease your risk of heart disease.

Some include health conditions, your lifestyle, and your age and family history. About half of all Americans have at least one of three key risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking.

While some risk factors can’t be controlled, others can be managed to reduce your risk.

• High blood pressure is a major risk factor. It happens when the pressure of the blood in your arteries and other blood vessels is too high. The high pressure, if not controlled, can affect your heart and other major organs of your body, including your kidneys and brain.

• Unhealthy blood cholesterol levels. If we take in more cholesterol than the body can use, the extra cholesterol can build up in the walls of the arteries, including those of the heart. This leads to narrowing of the arteries and can decrease the blood flow to the heart, brain, kidneys, and other parts of the body.

• Diabetes. If you have diabetes, your body doesn’t make enough insulin, can’t use its own insulin as well as it should, or both. It causes sugar to build up in the blood.

• Obesity. Obesity is linked to higher “bad” cholesterol and triglyceride levels and to lower “good” cholesterol levels. Obesity can lead to high blood pressure and diabetes as well as heart disease.

The ABCs

According to the CDC, there are a few things you should remember to help improve your heart health and cut down on the risk.

A is for aspirin, meaning if your doctor believes an aspirin regime is right for you to reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke, take it.

B is for blood pressure. This is a good indicator how your heart is working. Normal blood pressure readings are around 120 over 80 so readings consistently higher than that may mean something needs to be addressed.

C is for cholesterol and too much of it may mean narrowing or hardening of your arteries and heart disease. While our bodies need cholesterol, too much of the bad cholesterol can increase your risk of heart problems.

So, do yourself a favor and take care of yourself.

Your heart will thank you.