Heart Matters: are you at heart health risk and don’t even know it?

Valentine’s weekend is looming ever near; matters of the heart are on everyone’s mind these days, and for a good reason – February is a Heart Health month.

Unless you’ve lived under a rock (I wish I have!) for the last 20 years or so, you believe that diet, exercise, and stress management are 3 sure-fire ways to reduce your risk of cardio-vascular disease.

What if I told that there are 3 critical – and I mean utterly, hugely, ridiculously important – factors to your heart health that your doctor has never even mentioned? What if you were putting yourself at risk for high blood pressure, heart attack, varicose veins or a stroke, all by virtue of what you are doing every single day?

Can you guess what these 3 elements are?

Way back in December (gosh, doesn’t that feel like a million years ago?), when we were talking about 2016 wise investment goals, I wrote about my Grandma, her super high blood pressure (that eventually lead to a massive heart attack), and what my Momma said about cardio-vascular health in general, and our family’s in particular.

I took my Mom’s words to HEART – no pun intended – and being the nosy body nerd that I am, dug out some seriously mind-bending facts about how the type of blood flow, blood vessel geometry, and muscle innervation all influence BP and cardio – vascular health.

There was definitely way too much information for a single post, which can only mean one thing – we are talking HEART MATTERS all month long!

Did you guess the three elements yet? I kinda mentioned them in passing. Here are the super important, even crucial, HEART MATTERS that we are going to visit this February:

[bctt tweet=”ALIGNMENT MATTERS – quick hint: it is all about blood vessel geometry.”] Don’t worry; there will be no co-sinuses and ratios to remember. Just straight up practical things. And maybe a couple of pictures.

[bctt tweet=”MOVEMENT MATTERS – is “CARDIO” the best way to condition your cardio-vascular system?”] What if I told you that “CARDIO MYTH” was a big, fat lie?

[bctt tweet=”BLOOD FLOW MATTERS – what kind of blood flow are you making?”] Hint-hint: this one depends just as much on your diet, as it does on your exercise, AND stress levels.

Now, don’t you feel like Alice in wonderland?

Hey, my name is Julia

Living with chronic pain has taught me to look for solutions in unlikely places –  places where most people see only problems.

Over the years I’ve gotten to be pretty good at this problem-solving and silver-lining finding thing.

So good that I felt compelled to share what I’ve learned and help others to find their sea legs while navigating, living, and winning their battle with chronic pain.