Happy Valentines Day. May this Hallmark Holiday find you and yours well. Given the theme of the month, let’s talk a bit about heart health. Your heart is the hardest working muscle of your body. It never takes a break, even when the rest of you needs to. Pumping at 72 beats per minute (normal range is 60-100), it beats nearly 104,000 beats in a day and nearly 38,000,000 a year. There are about 5 quarts of blood in the average-sized person. The heart pumps about 2 ounces of blood with each heart beat. That translates to moving all of your blood through your heart every minute of every hour of every day. Seems like a big deal so maybe it does deserve its own month.
There will be many other articles this month looking at various aspects of heart health. I would like to mention, at least in passing, that blood pressure control is probably the most critical vital sign to health and longevity. One of my favorite conference speakers summarizes 100 years of blood pressure research this way: “First, fix my blood pressure. Second, make sure my blood pressure is under control. And third, if I have any other health conditions, make sure to fix my blood pressure.” I do not have the space to discuss the complexities of medications in this article. Please talk with your personal physician if y ...
