What is Your Risk for Heart Disease?

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Beaumont for IZEA Worldwide. All opinions are 100% mine.

A couple of months ago, my husband and I came back from walking the dog to find an ambulance at our next door neighbor’s home. As it turned out, our neighbor—a single guy in his 40s—had had a sudden heart attack and passed away.

This guy was literally only two years older than my husband and me. People just shouldn’t be dying of heart attacks in their 40s! It was especially surprising to us because he wasn’t overweight and he rode his bike all over the place. But when we went to his funeral, we learned that he had had some signs of heart disease in the past year and had been working with his doctor to get his heart healthier.

Such a tragedy! And it really scared us—we aren’t as healthy as we could be, and we definitely don’t want to be worried about heart attacks at this point in our lives. Obviously, we don’t want to have to be worried about it ever, but when you have kids still living under your roof it seems particularly awful. And knowing that it does happen to people who are our same age made us think more seriously about it.

Because this was something I was already thinking about, I was really excited when I was contacted by Beaumont to write about their free heart risk assessment.

I took Beaumont’s free heart risk assessment myself and was relieved to learn that I am at a low risk for cardiovascular disease (yay!).  I also learned that my heart age is a little younger than my actual age (also yay!).

You just need to answer a few questions about things like your weight, diet, exercise, and family history to help the test determine your risk. There are some surprising risk factors of heart disease and taking this quiz helps you to know what those factors are for you personally.

Once you have taken the questionnaire, you will be emailed a comprehensive report about your personal heart health and risk for cardiovascular disease (see video below to see part of my report and how that works).

The report not only outlines the risks you do or do not have for heart disease, it tells you how you can change the things that are possible to change (some things, such as family history, cannot be changed).

My report listed one high risk factor (my weight), and one moderate risk factor (my blood pressure), with the rest being low. Luckily for me, these are both things that I can change and am already working to change. The assessment gave me extra motivation to eat healthier and exercise more.

Since the best way to prevent heart disease is understanding and managing the risk factors—this heart risk assessment is invaluable!

As a mom of teens, I want them to see me having healthier habits and doing whatever it takes to keep my heart healthy and strong. I want them to know that I want to be around for them a long time and I want them to learn to develop these habits while they are still young.

If you are wondering what your own heart risk is, make sure to go take the Beaumont’s free heart risk assessment and get your free report. If you find you have a risk, make sure you know these 5 heart healthy habits you can start today, and follow up with a doctor for help.

It seriously only takes a few minutes out of your day—go do it. It’s worth it to know.