Spiritual Life

Be careful with your heart

February is not only a month of love and for lovers. It is more importantly, National Heart Month, an annual event designed to remind people about health practices to prevent and control heart disease and to maintain a healthy heart.

Heart attack is becoming the number one killer. It can be prevented if we are mindful of living a healthy life style: eating healthy food, keeping physically fit through regular exercise, avoiding stress, having enough rest and sleep. For many people, these practices are easier said than done. In fact, people take better care of their car than their bodies.

They are careful to change the oil, have regular tune-ups, and use the proper gasoline. But when it comes to their bodies, they fuel them with high-fat and high salt meals, they smoke and they don’t exercise routinely.

If we take care of our body in the same way as we take care of our car, we will live a longer and happier life. We will be spending less in health care for as the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Dr. Denton A. Cooley of the Texas Heart Institute compared the human heart to that of a car engine – both are power units that keep bodies moving. Our heart works as a pump that pushes blood to the organs, tissues, and cells of our body. The blood pumped by the heart delivers oxygen and nutrients to every cell and removes the carbon dioxide and waste products made by those cells. But if blood flow to the heart is slowed or stopped or the heart beats irregularly our life may be in danger. Like your car engine, how you treat your heart will determine how long and how well it will continue to work for you.

The Holy Book says that our body is the temple of God. We should take good care of it as a wholesome abode of the Holy Spirit.

A friend from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention shared in one of our conversations that the trend in public health education today is to change the attitude and practices of people wholistically, paying attention to the mind, body, and spirit as a whole. A “sound mind in a sound body” has been an old maxim which has long been taken for granted. It is time to return to the basics. Regular exercise, healthy eating, positive attitude towards life and living, a balance of work and play, rest and recreation, and daily meditation with God, goes a long way in keeping our mind free from worry and our body healthy and strong.

Medical studies show that eating a diet low in fat, salt, and cholesterol; not using any type of tobacco; exercising at least three times a week; maintaining your ideal weight; and decreasing your blood pressure, can reduce your risk of heart disease, as well as other degenerative diseases.

When you say, I love you to your spouse on Valentine’s Day, make a commitment that both of you will be careful with your heart.