Once youÃve made those New YearÃs resolutions to take better care of your health, do you know how to get started in making those promises a reality? One possible first step is to follow your mouse to the American Heart Association's Home Page at http://www.americanheart.org where you can take a unique interactive quiz, available 24 hours a day, to learn your personal risk of heart attack and some steps you can take to reduce your risk.
ìAll you have to do is answer a few simple questions about age, blood pressure cholesterol and other risk factors,î says Jan Breslow, M.D., president of the American Heart Association. ìThen, the computer takes over and calculates your personal heart disease risk, and provides you with a clear, accurate sketch of your chances of having a heart attack over the next 10 years.
ìThe quiz is somewhat like a visit to a personal physician because the results are based on the same information many physicians use to determine their patientsà risk,î continues Breslow, who is a senior scientist at the Rockefeller University in New York City. ìThat knowledge can put you on a path to a lifetime of good health habits.î
Individuals who take the quiz can create a personal account to store the results. This account is accessible only by the individual and by his or her personal physician, if that option is selected.
ìThe personal account allows an individual to return to the site as often as he or she likes so that the quiz can be repeated as progress is made toward reducing risk factors through lifestyle changes such as eating lower fat foods, becoming more physically active and stopping smoking,î notes Breslow.
Once you have the results of your quiz in hand, your next step might be to follow your mouse to the on-line Heart and Stroke A-to-Z Guide, which has concise, easy-to-understand information on 300 subjects, including how an individual can reduce his or her risk for heart disease and stroke. The guide also provides definitions of medical conditions and procedures, statistics, and American Heart Association positions on frequently asked subjects, such as the role of antioxidant vitamins in preventing heart disease and stroke.
Another feature of the associationÃs new Home Page is a daily health news feed provided by Reuters Health Information Services.
For children and teachers, the Home Page has special activities, including stories and games excerpted from HeartPower!, the American Heart Association's school-based curriculum supplement. HeartPower! is designed to teach kids how their body works with age-specific programs that stress the importance of developing good health habits such as avoiding smoking.
Last, but not least, visitors to the Home Page can learn how to contact their local American Heart Association office for year-round activities geared to helping individuals and their families live healthy lives.
The web site currently has more than 1,200 pages of information and is growing daily -- and the interactive risk-assessment quiz will be expanded to include the risk factors for stroke. Ongoing sponsorship for the site was provided by Pfizer, Inc., Hoechst Marion Roussel and Campbell's Center for Nutrition and Wellness.
The American Heart Association is a not-for-profit, voluntary health organization dedicated to reducing death and disability from heart disease and stroke. The AHA can be contacted at www.americanheart.org or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA-1. ###
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