Even though heart attack and stroke are rare in children, the process leading to those conditions begins in childhood. Reduce your children's risk of heart disease and stroke by giving them the HeartPower! to make healthy choices. HeartPower! means " Eat healthy stuff... Move around enough... and Live tobacco-free!" Here are some Heart Starters to creating a heart-healthy environment for you and your children.
Plan a family healthy-heart day
Take one day a week to have a Family Healthy-Heart Day. Get together with your kids and anyone else who wants to join in, like other family members or friends. Write out a heart-healthy menu for that day including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Choose at least one physical activity that lasts 30 minutes or three activities that last 10 minutes each. During your Family Healthy-Heart Day, talk about things you're doing as a family to help keep your hearts healthy.
Facts about children and heart disease
- Children in the United States today are less fit than they were a generation ago and are showing early signs of cardiovascular disease risk factors such as weight gain, high blood cholesterol and cigarette smoking.
- Inactive children, when compared with active ones, weigh more, have higher blood pressure and lower levels of heart-protective high-density lipoproteins.
- If all health trends remain constant, about 35 million of today's 83 million children will eventually die from heart and blood vessel disease.
- According to some studies, up to one-third of American children are obese.
- Nine million children live with at least one smoker and are exposed to secondhand smoke.
- Every day, 2,000 young people under the age of 18 in this country become smokers.
