American Heart Association

National ambassador Damar Hamlin is asking you to join the #NationofLifesavers. Learn CPR at http://spr.ly/6046PI9h8.

If you see a teen or adult collapse, rise up to the challenge: Call 911 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest. Hands-Only CPR can save a life. #NationofLifesavers

Cardiovascular disease carries a high price tag, and it’s expected to get more expensive. It’s not too late to save lives and reduce costs. Three things you can do today to get started: ✅ Eat better ✅ Get healthy sleep ✅ Move more

After a stroke in 2020, Minnie Watkins spent five weeks in the hospital and three and a half weeks in rehab relearning how to walk, talk and use the left side of her body. After rehab, she continued outpatient therapy with both occupational and physical therapy. “About a year after the stroke, my therapist and I noticed the spasticity in my left hand that seemed to have come out of nowhere. My fingers and wrist were noticeably stiffer; it felt like rubber bands were attached to my fingers and pulling my hand shut when I was trying to open it.” She first tried a stretching and strengthening device to relieve the spasticity, which worked until she fell and sprained her arm and hand. Her neurologist recommended botulinum toxin treatments. “It was about two and a half years post-stroke when I had my first injection. In two weeks, just as the doctor said, my fingers and wrist became increasingly flexible.” Minnie, who was 56 when she had her stroke, made her living as a portrait artist. The stroke affected her hand-eye coordination and the part of her brain that controls facial recognition. “An interesting thing about having a stroke is that you don't know how the stroke has fully affected you until you try to use those muscles that allowed you to exercise skills that you had perfected. When I came home after my stroke, I noticed that the friends that I have known for 20 to 30 years did not look like themselves to me.” Minnie has created a visual journal on canvas that depicts “my journey and faith in God through the pandemic, losing my brother to COVID, having a stroke, and my continuous journey and my healing. With time many things that I was not able to do, now I can.” Ipsen is a proud sponsor of the American Stroke Association’s Spasticity Education Initiative.

Put health on the menu without deep diving every label. Just use the Heart-Check mark. Foods and recipes with the Heart-Check are certified by the American Heart Association for high nutritional value, so you can shop, prepare and serve confidently.

When it comes to health care in rural America, Alaska’s challenges are more extreme. It’s big, it’s cold, and many towns and villages are impossible to get to by car. But Alaskans are tough, and they’re meeting these challenges together.

Practicing yoga or other forms of mindful meditation regularly can help you have more energy and lower stress. It could be the missing piece to spice up your workout routine or a way to start moving more if you’re not the active type, are older or have physical limitations.

Congratulations to these HeartCorps participants for their dedication to service in rural communities across the country. We’re grateful for their work fighting health disparities and their commitment to our mission to build a world of longer, healthier lives for all. Service Member of the Year – Emily Sessor of Ohio Supervisor of the Year – Sam Gardner of Wyoming Host Site of the Year – The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina The American Heart Association’s HeartCorps program is a grantee of AmeriCorps. Learn more about the HeartCorps program at http://spr.ly/6043cjYKP.

Yes, you are an athlete. Get out there and move for a healthier you.

The term “health equity” first showed up in medical research in 1966, and ideas around health equity were championed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during that decade. But it's seen a resurgence in the past 25 years. "Health equity is about fixing health gaps that are fixable," said Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the School of Public Health at Boston University. "And often, health inequity reflects an injustice, in that we have not paid enough attention to what can be fixed." Today the richest 1% of Americans have a life expectancy that's at least 10 years higher than those in the poorest 1%. Where a person lives can predict their likelihood of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and more. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought equity issues into the public consciousness. Death rates showed huge gaps along racial and ethnic lines. The nation confronted how someone's job, home and even internet access – factors known as social determinants of health - could be matters of life and death. While there’s still a lot of work to be done, Dr. Galea is optimistic about the future. Now, "there's a generation of public health scientists and practitioners who see health equity as being at the very heart of what they do." And as the American Heart Association enters its second century, we remain devoted to addressing inequality and the social determinants of health, advancing health and hope for everyone, everywhere. #AHABoldHearts