This February, in honor of American Heart Month, many Ross Medical Education Center campuses held events and invited guest speakers to engage with students and give them some of the facts and stories about why heart health is so crucial. One of the campuses that was thrilled to participate in educating their students on this important issue was the Ross Medical Education Center campus in Owensboro, Kentucky. The Owensboro campus invited guest speaker Nick Jones ACE-CPT Fitness Supervisor from local Owensboro Healthpark, to talk to our students about living a Heart Healthy lifestyle.
Nick Jones is a Owensboro native who graduated from Western Kentucky University with a degree in Exercise Science. He then went into the field and has now been working in the Medical Fitness field for over 10 years. When asked why he had chosen this field for his studies and occupation, Nick shared, “I have a strong passion for injury prevention and promoting corrective exercises in athletes, as well as sports performance.” His passion was evident as he shared about heart health and living a healthy lifestyle.
During the Heart Health and Fitness presentation, Nick talked about a variety of important topics. First he gave an overview of how the heart works and its relationship with the rest of the body. Then he discussed cardiovascular disease and heart disease which could result in heart attacks, strokes, and/or heart failure. He also talked about non-modifiable risk factors which are age, gender, and family history. At this point Nick talked about the two different types of diabetes and the importance of regular exercise to decrease the chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes. He then discussed modifiable factors such as smoking, poor diet, stress, obesity, poor hygiene, and hypertension. The importance of getting your cholesterol checked regularly was stressed. The students asked Nick how they could decrease their chances of heart disease and his answer was exercise. Some of the suggested cardiovascular exercises are running/jogging, cycling, swimming, rowing, stair climbing, brisk walks, jumping rope, aerobics and high intensity interval training.
Some Fun Heart Facts brought out in the presentation were:
- Each minute your Heart pumps 1.5 gallons of blood
- A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s by almost eight beats per minute
- The blue whale has the biggest heart weighing in at 1500lbs
For more information on fitness activities you can get involved in, contact Nick Jones at 270-688-4828 or john.jones@owensborohealth.org.