00:00 Dr. Lakshmi Mehta is a volunteer expert with the American Heart Association.
00:05 Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
00:08 Thank you for having me.
00:10 And I like that you're already in your red blazer there,
00:13 adding just a touch of red here ahead of the big day tomorrow.
00:16 Well, cardiovascular disease, unfortunately, is the number one killer of women.
00:21 And what makes the Go Red for Women message so important?
00:25 Well, the American Heart Association recognizes that women really aren't aware of heart disease being their number one killer.
00:32 For instance, do you know that young moms are more likely to die from heart disease than other types of medical problems,
00:40 or that women are less likely to receive bystander CPR?
00:44 And so if we need to raise awareness, and that's why the American Heart Association has the National Wear Red Day,
00:51 to increase the awareness so women can take their heart health seriously and make a difference for their life.
00:57 I didn't know a lot of that.
00:59 And, you know, speaking of a woman and a mom myself, that's very, very helpful information.
01:03 In addition to that, I'm also a meteorologist.
01:05 So we want to tie in the weather, and especially in winter, we talk about cold weather.
01:09 So can you share some signs and symptoms that we can get when it comes to the cold weather and heart disease?
01:15 Yeah, so we know that when the weather is really cold outside, our bodies, the vessels, the arteries in our body tend to constrict,
01:24 which then increases the pressure in our blood pressure as well as our heart rate, which can be taxing on someone.
01:31 And so if you're someone who doesn't normally exercise and you're suddenly out in the cold, trying to do physical activity like shoveling snow,
01:39 that can be taxing and lead to heart attacks.
01:42 And so that's why we recommend to people to practice safely when they're even doing a task like shoveling snow.
01:48 You know, we want our viewers to make sure they warm up before going out to do that physical exertion
01:54 and to wear warm clothing so that they can preserve some core body temperature so there's less constriction.
02:00 Yeah, and if you're doing that tomorrow, wear warm red clothing as a reminder.
02:04 I'm all about kind of the preventative health.
02:06 So I think what are going to be some healthy activities that people can participate in, not just on Friday, but every day?
02:14 Yeah, so some of the activities is I think the number one thing we want to make sure at the American Heart Association is that everyone recognizes that they need to know their numbers for heart disease.
02:23 So they need to see their provider to get their blood pressure checked, to get their blood sugar checked and their body mass index.
02:29 But then they need to be active.
02:31 So our guidelines from the American Heart Association is to participate in moderate intensity activity of 150 minutes per week or at least 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.
02:42 Obviously, we would recommend people to be active every day and to increase that amount.
02:47 We also want people to follow a healthy diet, you know, limiting the saturated fats, limiting the sugars in their diet.
02:54 And another important thing is to make sure you're not smoking and also to make sure you're getting adequate sleep.
03:00 We all forget about sleep, but we recommend seven to nine hours of sleep for adults to be healthy.
03:06 That's tough.
03:07 I'm sure everybody here on the morning show just cringed with that because our hours are a little bit difficult.
03:12 But hey, even if you can just do small little steps, what you gave is a lot of good information, but maybe overwhelming.
03:17 So just start small and try to make your way healthy.
03:19 And one great way, of course, is to be wearing red tomorrow to just keep the conversation going.
03:24 Well, thank you.
03:26 Yeah, we appreciate it so much.
03:28 Dr. Laxmi Mehta from the American Heart Association.
03:31 We appreciate you joining us this morning.
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