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Throughout the month of February, we are swarmed with decorations and candy that remind us of Cupid, love, and Feb. 14. While the hearts that cover Valentine's Day merchandise are meant to represent love, they should also serve as a simple reminder for us to take care of our hearts.

The next time you see one of these hearts, think about your own heart, and ask yourself if you are living a heart-healthy lifestyle.

While the rates of death due to cardiovascular disease are on the decline, it is still the No. 1 cause of death in the United States.

Many risk factors of cardiovascular disease can be controlled by a living a healthy lifestyle and making wise choices every day. A pro-active approach to heart health also involves visiting your doctor to find out about your cholesterol and blood pressure.

While some risk factors of heart disease are out of our control, such as age and genetics, there are many things we can control through our every-day choices.

Every-day choices include what you eat and how much you exercise. A heart-healthy diet is nutrient rich and includes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat dairy products. It limits foods that are high in calories and low in nutrients, and also limits saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium.

It is recommended that healthy people, ages 18-65, exercise at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. The exercise you do can be whatever you enjoy the most such as swimming, jogging, walking, biking or playing a sport. The important thing is that you are engaging in physical activity. Finally, as part of a heart-healthy lifestyle, you should make the pledge to quit smoking or vow to never start. While many people associate smoking with lung cancer, which is true, it is also a major risk factor for heart disease.

One added bonus to living a heart-healthy lifestyle is that it is also a cancer-preventive lifestyle. Not smoking, exercising regularly, and eating healthfully will help reduce your risks of developing certain types of cancers along with greatly benefiting your heart health.

Seeing one of cupid's hearts should also remind you to visit your doctor and find out how your own heart may be doing. You should have your blood pressure measured to know if you have pre-hypertension or hypertension, which is high blood pressure. It is estimated that one in three U.S. adults has high blood pressure. Having hypertension or pre-hypertension can increase your risk of stroke, heart attack, heart failure, and kidney failure. While at the doctor's office, you should also have a blood test to determine your cholesterol levels. Having high cholesterol levels may also put you at increased risk for heart disease. Knowing you have high cholesterol or blood pressure can help you and your doctor make decisions about changes you can make to help lower or decrease these numbers and lower other risk factors.

Texas AgriLife Extension Service and Texas Cancer Council remind you to live a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Shelia Lewis is a Smith County Extension agent in family and consumer sciences. She can be reached at sk-lewis@tamu.edu. This column on family and consumer education news appears in the Thursday Community section of the Tyler Morning Telegraph.