Live Longer, Through Simple Steps (New Year's Resolutions) By Mellanie True Hills Have your New Year's resolutions truly impacted your life, or are they now just a distant memory? After the holidays, did your everyday life get in the way? Did you plan to lose weight, start a fitness program, or quit smoking? It's hard to stick with large, audacious goals day-by-day. Perhaps you can think in terms of "Total Health," and take baby steps to get there. Each day, do something for your health, and by the end of the year, you will have made a major overall impact. At lunch, you might choose veggies instead of potatoes, or broiled or baked instead of fried. Instead of burning gas looking for the closest parking spot, simply park and walk, getting a few more of those recommended 10,000 steps a day. If you're getting bogged down and frustrated working on a project, take time to get away and decompress by taking a walk or sitting silently to reflect. Or go to bed 10 minutes early. It's so much easier to think in terms of taking a few simple steps each day to improve your total health and well- being. We're coming up on February, which is National Heart Month. Cardiovascular disease - heart disease, stroke, etc. - is still the number one killer, not just of men, but of women, too. There is good news: overall age-adjusted death rates from cardiovascular disease have declined over the past 30 years, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. From 1970 to 2002, premature deaths from heart disease dropped 52%, and from stroke, 63%. Thus, we're surviving cardiovascular disease, living longer, and dying at older ages. Improved treatment, due to medical research and technology, has lengthened our life spans. There is also bad news: these improved results are largely for men. We can successfully treat heart attacks and save lives, but women's subtle heart attack symptoms are often missed. We lose more women than men to heart disease and stroke in the US - one woman every minute, 1400 every day, and almost half a million every year. Women's heart disease is still not diagnosed and treated as aggressively as men's. Three-fourths of doctors still don't know that we lose more women than men. Thus, February is also "Go Red for Women." It's a time to raise awareness among women of our risk of heart disease and stroke. By wearing red, we can remind ourselves and our friends to take care of our hearts. With increasing awareness among women of our risk factors, symptoms, and prevention, and more aggressive treatment by our doctors, we will see the same kinds of survival rates for women as for men. Until that happens, one out of every two of us will die of heart disease or stroke. The US Centers for Disease Control reports that if we eliminate all major forms of cardiovascular disease, overall life expectancy will rise by almost seven years. Heart disease and stroke are almost totally preventable through simple lifestyle choices. Live longer, by taking simple steps to create a healthier YOU. Won't you make these simple changes that can save your life? Mellanie True Hills, the Health & Productivity Revitalizer?, is a women's health expert who speaks and coaches individuals and organizations in creating healthy productivity. She is the author of A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life: The HEART Program for Health and Longevity. Find out more at http://www.mellaniehills.com

Copyright ? 2005, 2006 by Mellanie True Hills. All rights reserved.