Heart disease is a serious medical condition that affects millions of people.  Although more common in men, it is the leading cause of death of women in the United States.  1-2-3 Fit realizes the importance of heart health, and encouraging Americans to learn the facts and make heart healthy lifestyle decisions is one of our foremost goals.

We already know that regular exercise is one of the easiest ways to prevent and control heart disease, so to further promote our mission, we have become a national sponsor of the American Heart Association’s new Start! program which is aimed at increasing physical activity to prevent heart disease and stroke in Americans.  Take the risk assessment below to help you better understand your risk of heart disease and begin implementing simple lifestyle changes that may lower your risk.

	For each hour of regular exercise, people can gain about two hours of life expectancy, even if they don't start exercising until middle age.
	The death rate for heart attack patients who participated in a formal exercise program was reduced by 20 percent to 25 percent.

About the Risk Assessment
Determining 10-year (short term) risk for developing CHD is carried out using Framingham risk scoring. The risk factors included in the Framingham calculation are age, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, treatment for diabetes, and cigarette smoking. Because of a larger database, Framingham estimates are more robust for total cholesterol than for LDL cholesterol. Note, however, that LDL cholesterol remains the primary target of therapy.  This tool is designed to estimate risk in adults aged 30 and older who do not have heart disease or diabetes.

What is the Framingham Heart Study?
The Framingham Heart Study is one of the most important public health studies in American medical history.  The goal of the study is to learn why people get cardiovascular disease and how it progresses and results in death.  This information will help researchers find out, over a long time, how those who develop cardiovascular diseases differ from those who don't.  Visit http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/about/framingham/ for more information.