Valentine’s Day is this Tuesday, and hopefully that special person in your life adds more love and less stress to it.While that holiday is prominently featured in February, so is heart health.

According to Harvard Medical School, the heart beats about 2.5 billion times over the average lifetime, pushing millions of gallons of blood to every part of the body. 

Quite an impressive feat. It’s something we don’t realize all that much unless we’re stressing over a big test or running late for an appointment.

According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States. They further state that one person dies every 34 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease.

Financially, heart disease costs the United States about $229 billion each year from 2017 to 2018. The CDC states that this includes the cost of healthcare services, medicines, and lost productivity due to death.

While February is a little late for resolutions, we can all strive to do a little more exercise and/or make healthier choices that will contribute to better heart health.

You can check out our latest Health and Wellness special section, located on our website, www.scdemocratonline.com to see an article by Dr. David Morcos of Garnet Health Doctors, where he explains several steps to ensuring good heart health.

Also, just as another reminder, the 98.3 WSUL Heart-A-Thon is just one week away at Resorts World Catskills casino. It once again raises funds for Garnet Health Medical Center - Catskills, and this year, will also benefit several additional causes ensuring the health of our community.

There will also be a blood drive hosted by three local Rotary clubs  –– Monticello, Liberty and Livingston Manor.

Please consider supporting the Heart-A-Thon and donating blood, which there is a critical need for.

Follow-up

We recently published an editorial about the importance of getting young people outdoors. We would be remiss to not mention how great it was hearing about the nice turnout of youth at local ice fishing tournaments last weekend. We hope to hear the same for Hurleyville FD’s Ice Fishing Contest tomorrow and King of the Ice later this month.

There were also a number of kids showing off their talents with ice skates during the Livingston Manor Rotary’s Ice Carnival last Saturday. 

More fresh air and less devices is what we like to see.