Our bodies are designed to have a lot of things in twos: two eyes, two ears, two hands, two legs, two feet, two kidneys, two lungs and so on. For many of these body parts, we can live without having both – just one ear or even just one lung.
But we only have one heart.
The heart is the one organ that has to keep on beating every second of the day to keep us alive. We do not have the luxury of letting the doctor cut half of it off if it is diseased and keep breathing with half a heart.
Sadly, many of us do not take very good care of this amazing, well-designed organ. The heart is a muscle, and in order for it to stay healthy and strong it must be exercised regularly and strenuously. Due to a largely sedentary lifestyle in the West, many people no longer even understand the meaning of the word “strenuous”. As a result, we have become a society of unfit individuals.
According to the 2009 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Report (Lloyd-Jones et al. 2009):
- heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States
- an estimated 80 million American adults (about 1 in 3) have at least one kind of cardiovascular disease (CVD)
- every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a stroke
- about 2,400 Americans die of CVD each day
One of the main problems is that 62% of adults over the age of 18 lead a completely sedentary lifestyle. Most know little or nothing about how the heart functions. Do you know how to take care of your heart?
Our heart’s health should be a top priority so we can live and longer, better quality lives, the way our Creator has intended for us.
You can start today by exercising daily. Try walking for 30 minutes each day and then add a challenge regularly in order to keep training your most important muscle to make it strong and healthy.
You only have one heart!