Don’t bleed red; make heart-healthy decisions

Hearts are plentiful during the month of February. The biggie involving hearts comes on some romantic day when lovers of all ages share their hearts and lots of love.
But as I grow older in years, I have found something even bigger than Valentine’s Day involving hearts. February is American Heart Month. It seems the older I get the more I pay special attention to medical issues, especially anything involving the heart. 
This is something that is near and dear to me for so many reasons. Most importantly, our family has a long history of heart disease.
The heart problems facing our family didn’t really hit home until a few years ago when my uncle completed a genealogy chart of health issues. He plotted out the exact causes of how each family member has died over the past four generations. It also detailed what some living members are battling. And the chart overwhelmingly bled red—with heart issues, that is. 
It’s kind of morbid in some ways looking at the chart, but what a great way to make some more healthy choices. Boy, sometimes a person has to simply hate genetics, right? 
About a decade ago, my father had a valve replacement in his heart and underwent a triple by-pass surgery. While it certainly was a scary ordeal at the time, he has since recovered miraculously and to this day leads a near normal life. 
But the heart issues involving our family go even deeper. I had a cousin who died as a teenager many years ago from heart disease. There have been many others who have died from heart problems, but luckily not as young as my cousin. It seems the Bussler name and heart issues are intertwined with each other.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. One in every three deaths is from heart disease and stroke, equal to 2,200 deaths per day. Just about all of us have been touched by someone who has had heart diease.
The disease of cardiovascular is also extremely expensive. Together heart disease and stroke hospitalizations cost the nation more than $445 billion in health care expenses and lost productivity.
But, as American Heart Month points out, we can’t afford to sit back and do nothing about it. We can fight back vigorously to prevent the nation’s leading killers. We need everyone to work hard at making heart-healthy choices.
A few years ago the Department of Health and Human Services launched a national initiative that aims to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes in the U.S. over the next several years. It’s called the Million Hearts Initiative.