More than a couple of hundred people attended a free community health fair Saturday morning that was sponsored by the Greene County Health Council.
Before the doors opened at 7 a.m., a long line of individuals were waiting to enter the building at First Baptist Church, according to organizers of the fifth annual “Heart Stock Health Fair.”
Many of those waiting were there to take advantage of the free medical screenings being offered, including glucose and cholesterol testing and vascular screenings.
“We didn’t anticipate this crowd,” said Carolyn Parkins of Laughlin Memorial Hospital, who was one of the health-care professionals on hand helping with the cholesterol screening.
“We’ve been sticking for two hours non-stop,” Parkins said at about 9 a.m.
Susan Price, the social services director at Laughlin Hospital and one of the organizers of the event, said she was extremely pleased with the turnout for the Health Fair.
Ashley Head, Laughlin Hospital’s registered dietitian and another health fair organizer, said that 225 persons registered at the event; however, she felt confident that the attendance may have been a bit higher because some may not have registered.
Cardiovascular Disease
In addition to the medical screenings, a health lecture was presented by cardiologist Dr. Collier Jordan of Tri-State Cardiology.
During his talk, Dr. Jordan spoke largely about risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease and how persons can better protect themselves from developing it.
The heart, Jordan described, is “a very small organ about as big as your fist.
“It beats about 100,000 times every day and pumps about five quarts of blood per minute.” In order to be successful at its job, the heart depends on oxygen.
“It can’t even go a few minutes without oxygen,” Jordan said. “So the arteries in the heart are very important to make sure that heart has the power to work right.”
When these arteries become blocked or damaged, the heart cannot complete its work. Jordan call heart disease “at an epidemic proportion in our country today.”
More than 800,000 deaths are attributed to cardiovascular disease in the U.S. each year, he said.
“It is by far the leading cause of death in this country,” he said.
While some risk factors for heart disease can be changed, others cannot, he said.
The risk of cardiovascular disease increases as one ages. Also, some persons have genetic predisposition for heart disease, he said.
While these are factors that persons cannot control, there are many other risk factors for heart attack and stroke that a person can control, he stressed.
Risk Factors Cited
It is important, Dr. Jordan said, for people “to know their risk factors and to focus on the things that they can do something about.”
He listed these risk factors:
• Regularly measure your blood pressure and blood sugar and have your cholesterol levels checked periodically, he recommended.
• If you have high blood pressure, take steps to control it.
• If you smoke, quit.
• Avoid secondhand smoke.
• Maintain healthy cholesterol levels.
• Be physically active.
• If you have diabetes, keep your blood sugar levels in control.
• Reduce excessive weight.
• Maintain a healthy diet.
“We keep preaching to everyone to not smoke, to watch their diet and to exercise. These are three easy things to talk about, but they are three very hard things for many people to do,” Jordan said.
“It sounds easy, but it’s not always easy to do all the right things to control your risk factors for heart disease,” he said.
He said that controlling these risk factors is extremely vital in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
“The body is designed to be active, and to have rich foods only occasionally — certainly not at every meal,” he said.
Smoking, he added, has absolutely no benefit for the body.
It is one of the largest health detriments that people can do to themselves, Dr. Jordan said.
