We visited with the American Heart Association, and that was an agency near and dear to my heart – no pun intended.
I pretty much knew what they did already before we went in there with my recent open heart surgery. I think the American Heart Association as far as what they’re doing is tremendous.
Heart disease is the number one killer of women in America, and that association is saving lives everyday with the research that they are funding. With me personally, the pig valves they used was the direct result of American Heart Association’s research that learned that the valves of pigs were the same size as human valves. They cultivated those hearts in order to get the valves, and today hundreds of thousands of surgeries are performed annually just to replace heart valves. It’s one of those things that I am very personally aware of. Without it, I wouldn’t be here today to blog about it.
Of course, like a lot of things we see with these visits, a lot of it is about prevention. There are some cases where the problems with the heart are because of genetics or congenital defects. But most everything else comes back to lifestyle. Whether it be your eating habits or lifestyle habits – whatever they are. One of the big things that I learned, my diet, my ability to handle stress, all of those things were affecting my blood pressure.
I’m not doing as good as I should, but my diet is much better than it was. You’ve got to eat right, watch your cholesterol, and watch your blood pressure. Hopefully, then you won't need the research that's been done at the Heart Association, but if you ever do, thank God they're there!
Blog you soon,
Dave Bennett
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