Health and Wellness

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and many groups around the country observe National Wear Red Day® each year on the first Friday in February to raise awareness about heart disease as the leading cause of death among Americans, especially women.

Eating less salt and sodium can help protect your heart. Try these herbs and spices instead of salt to season your food. Start with small amounts to see if you like them.

Food labels help you choose foods that are lower in calories and sugar. Watching your calories and portion sizes can make it easier to reach or stay at a weight that's healthy for you. Learn about how to read food labels, starting with this one for sweetened tea.

Diagnosing mental illness isn’t a straightforward science. We can’t test for it the same way we can test blood sugar levels for diabetes. Each condition has its own set of unique symptoms, though symptoms often overlap.

What you eat makes a difference to your heart. A heart-healthy eating plan emphasizes vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, includes fat-free or low-fat dairy products, and limits foods high in saturated fat and sugar-sweetened beverages and sweets. Use the guide below to determine how much you should eat from each food group.

Choosing and preparing foods that are lower in salt and sodium might help prevent or lower high blood pressure.

You don’t have to give up eating out to eat right. Here are some heart-healthy choices.

Millions of people are affected by mental illness each year. Across the country, many people just like you work, perform, create, compete, laugh, love and inspire every day.

Maintaining a healthy weight can help keep your cholesterol and blood pressure in healthy ranges. Unhealthy cholesterol and blood pressure levels can lead to heart attack or stroke.
Overweight and obesity, which means having excess body fat, can increase your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), sometimes called “bad” cholesterol, and lower your high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the “good” cholesterol. Overweight and obesity can also increase triglycerides, a type of fat.

Keep track of important numbers related to your heart health.

Having a mental illness can make it challenging to live everyday life and maintain recovery. Beyond the individual, these challenges ripple out through our families, our communities,
and our world.