Everything we’re doing to raise awareness during American Heart Month
Mercy Health is all heart. While we advocate heart health all year round, we proclaim it even more during February, as we join together with organizations across the country to celebrate American Heart Month.
Each February, we take additional steps to raise heart disease awareness. One in three adults are diagnosed with heart disease each year. But perhaps even more startling, is that 80% of people who were diagnosed could have taken steps to prevention.
Since last February, Mercy Health has made great strides in promoting cardiovascular care. Our goal is to ensure that those who visit us, whether in-person, on our website or through social media, have access to tools and resources to improve their heart health.
Advocating for heart health in our communities
We do this through steps both small and large. This year, we’ve advocated for heart health in our community by wearing red to raise heart disease awareness and participating in runs and walks in the neighborhoods we serve. Online, we’ve provided heart healthy recipes and delivered tips via social media and inboxes to help patients better understand how to reduce high blood pressure, cholesterol, and manage blood sugars. In our hospitals, we’ve recruited world-class physicians who bring highly specialized procedures, such as the 5-Box Maze Procedure to treat atrial fibrillation.
And, to further strengthen our commitment to heart disease awareness, we’ve entered a partnership with the American Heart Association. Together, we’re supporting their Healthy for Good™ initiative, which focuses on reducing high blood pressure.
Healthy for Good™ is a movement designed to inspire small steps that create lasting change. In the communities that Mercy Health serves, high blood pressure, which is also called the “silent killer,” affects approximately 42% of the population. By providing education and prevention tips, we hope to help our communities better understand what steps they can take to help their hearts, even when no signs or symptoms are present.
As we head into 2019, we look forward to continuing to better heart health within our communities and beyond. In addition to launching online risk assessments, we’re preparing to launch low-cost, in-person screenings that measure cholesterol and blood sugar numbers. We know that the more you know about your health, the better prepared you are to protect it.
Everyone has a next step in their healthy living journey. What’s yours? We encourage you to take our online screening, schedule an appointment with your doctor, or brush up on your heart health education today.
