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The American Heart Association Hosts Annual Long Island Heart Walk This Weekend

Written by Evelyn Ortiz  |  20. September 2013

The American Heart Association is hosting the Long Island Heart Walk on September 22nd, 2013 at Jones Beach Field 5 at 10:00 AM.  Their goal is to reduce coronary heart disease, stroke and risk by 25% by 2020.  The goal is to increase physical activity and this mission cannot be completed without those of you who choose to fight strokes and heart disease.  Thanks in advance to the thousands of volunteers, donors and walkers who support the cause.

The American Heart Association has six main goals:

  • To improve patient care — Improving the quality of health care by creating best practices for treating heart disease and stroke.  Mission: Lifeline helps patients with the most severe kind of heart attack get the specialized emergency services they need to survive.
  • Advocate for better health — Their nationwide volunteer network, You’re The Cure, advocates physical education in schools
  • Reach out to populations at risk — Blacks have higher risk and higher death rates from stroke than whites. Our Power To End Stroke education/awareness initiative helps African Americans reduce their risk of stroke by sharing vital information to them about the possible risks of heart disease.
  • Raise awareness — Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women over age 25, through Go Red For Women, we’re raising awareness among women about their risks and empowering them to protect their heart health.
  • Protect the future — Nearly one in three children and teens in the United States is overweight or obese. They are helping kids develop lifelong healthy habits and working to make sure that today’s children can grow up to be tomorrow’s healthy adults.
  • Educate Americans — They save lives every day by offering information and education on how to live longer, healthier lives.

The American Heart Association uses donated funds to:

  • Allow doctors to have the best up to date research so that they can treat and better prevent disease among patients.
  • Research to save babies’ lives - about 36,000 babies are born with heart defects each year so funds are used for groundbreaking pediatric heart and stroke research.
  • Get life-saving information dispersed to help save lives – give people information on how to recognize the warning signs of heart attack, how to get into better eating habits, and how to talk to a doctor or about critical health choices.

Heart issues can affect anyone, the elderly, the young, a newborn baby.  I received my first scare at the age of 18 and I know of a woman who gave birth to twins who were both born with problems in their electrical systems of their hearts.  Their cardiologist and the American Heart Association were both vital to the health of those girls. 

In 2009 I was hospitalized because of Atrial tachycardia.  It was the scariest day of my life that I would never want to relive.  My heart was beating rapidly and fluttering uncontrollably between 120-200bpm, nothing was able to calm it down.  Thankfully after my overnight stay at Good Samaritan Hospital I was able to go home but was then assigned a cardiologist.  I am under constant surveillance and go in for routine checkups; I get stress tests done and also get 24 hour heart monitors placed on me.  It does not feel too good being surrounded by elders at the cardiologist and thinking “I am too young for this;I have my whole life ahead of me.”

Recently, I have been diagnosed with high blood pressure at the tender age of 21.  I sometimes don’t know how to cope with all that has been thrown my way but what I take from this experience is that you are never too young to take care of your heart – cardiac issues do not only involve the elderly and this may not always be a hereditary issue in order for you to be effected.  It has been hard but I have come to realize that this is my reality and that heart disease is the leading cause of deaths.  So it is my personal duty to take care of my own heart and my personal goal to raise awareness and support the causes of the American Heart Association.

“Imagine the impact if we reduce death and disability from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20% by 2020! I’m joining the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk to promote physical activity to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Please support me in helping to reach this lifesaving goal by giving a donation today! Thanks in advance for your support.” – American Heart Assoc.

All Donations May Be Made Directly Through My Donation Page - or You Can Send A Personal Check/money Order To The Local Long Island, Plainview Office. (In honor of me – Evelyn Ortiz). I know that the online donation page refers you to print a donation form and informs you to send the check to a Texas P.O. Box but that is the international American Heart Assoc. and the event that I am participating in is for the Long Island Walk.

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