Make Your Holidays Healthier!

Enjoy a gift from Start! this holiday season, the Start! Holiday Healthy Eating Guide is available for download at www.StartWalkingNow.org.

This booklet includes tips and recipes to help get through the holidays with your health in mind and is available for free when you register for Start!

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. Heart disease and stroke are the number one causes of death and disability among people with type 2 diabetes.

Get more information about the critical connection between type 2 diabetes and your heart. Enroll in The Heart of Diabetes for tips, tools and a free cookbook.

It only takes a few minutes to change your life.

Did you know that next Wednesday, November 4, is Start! Eating Healthy Day?

It's a time to pay a little extra attention to food choices and make any dietary changes appropriate to form heart-healthy eating habits.

Designed as a workplace-based walking program, Start! encourages companies to urge their employees to walk during the business day. Start! Eating Healthy Day adds another dimension to the initiative.In a nation where being overweight or obese has reached an epidemic level, it's necessary to start somewhere to improve cardiovascular health.

Start! Eating Healthy Day is a good beginning. Here's a Start! Eating Healthy Day Resource Kit for you to download.

Want to take your new healthy eating habits into the holiday season? Check out this special holiday guide!

Start! is sponsored nationally by Subway, Healthy Choice and AstraZeneca.

Calorie Counts on Menus Making a Difference

The New York City Department of Health just released new data showing that people who used calorie information on fast-food restaurant menus ordered on average 106 fewer calories for their lunch.

This story appeared in USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-10-26-calories-on-the-menu_N.htm.

October is many things. It's the month we honor Christopher Columbus, the month we dress up and ask that age old question, "trick or treat" but it is also Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness month. So what does that mean?

It means we have a chance to raise awareness about a condition that affects approximately 166,000 Americans each year. It is an opportunity to advocate for a simple device and some basic training to make a difference to the 95% of people who suffer from sudden cardiac arrest and do not make it to medical treatment in time.

The Josh Miller HEARTS Act would establish a grant program to help schools purchase automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and provide for training in CPR and AED use. The bill was prompted by the tragic death of a 15-year old high school student who suffered sudden cardiac arrest at school. It recognizes the importance of providing schools with the equipment and training necessary to save the lives of children and adults in the community as part of an overall medical emergency response plan.

For every minute that passes without CPR, the chances of survival from SCA decrease by 7-10%. But the good news is that survival rates more than double when CPR and defibrillation can be quickly applied. By providing access to AEDs and proper training, we have an opportunity to make a real difference in someone's life.

Please act now and urge your Senators to co-sponsor the Josh Miller HEARTS Act. It has already passed through the US House of Representatives and now we need the Senate to support and move this important legislation. We can do it with your help! Let's make this October a life-saver!