HeartTV: Jet Your Heart Out

Now jetting to HRT. No, not the place, but your actual heart. You know, that thing in your chest often referred to as a ticker? The American Heart Association suggests you handle that thing with care, just like jetBlue does with passengers’ on-board needs (hey—flattery can't hurt, right?). Simply put: we often put our lifestyles in first class but put our hearts in coach—way back there too, by the lavatory, between two screaming--we mean, lively--children. HeartTV is the first if it's kind. Think of it as: MTV meets CVD, except our budget is about $3.00. The American Heart Association is taking on an ambitious goal of improving the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent and reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20 percent by year 2020. How, you ask? Gate change! The answer is seven simple steps that you and everyone you know can do to embrace prevention and wipe out this country's No. 1 killer. We call it My Life's Simple 7. Eat better. Get active. Stop smoking. Control cholesterol. Manage blood pressure. Reduce blood sugar. Lose weight. Yes, it’s really that simple. HeartTV is the key to starting the conversation on the ground level and here’s how we’ll do it: two American Heart Association staffers and a Flip video camera take to the skies with jetBlue’s All You Can Jet Pass. We hit seven cities across the country and we’ll spotlight volunteers who are leading the American Heart Association’s My Life’s Simple 7 charge: Travel to Denver and Get Active Ranked Most Athletic/Active City in America by Travel and Leisure, 2007. Travel to Salt Lake City and Control Cholesterol Despite getting a lot of exercise, its residents had high rates of diabetes, hypertension and asthma, and recorded the study’s highest rate of high cholesterol. BestPlaces.net, 2010 Travel to New Orleans and Eat Better Ranked Unhealthiest City in America by Bert Sperling's BestPlaces and multivitamin-maker Centrum, 2010. Travel to Las Vegas and Manage Blood Pressure Ranked Most Stressful City by Forbes Magazine, 2010. Travel to San Jose, California and Lose Weight Ranked Healthiest City in America by The Centrum® Healthiest Cities Study, First of Its Kind, Seeks to Inspire Americans to Achieve a Balanced, Healthy Lifestyle, 2010. Travel to Phoenix and Reduce Blood Sugar Arizona’s population is ¼ obese, according to The Arizona Republic, 2010. Travel to Washington D.C. and Stop Smoking D.C. had the largest 10 year decrease in smoking population, taking the average percentage from 18.7 % to 9.9 %. America’s Health Rankings, 2009. From there, we share these My Life’s Simple 7 successes via HeartTV nationwide and encourage all Americans to take the My Life’s Simple 7 challenge in their own lives and be healthier. Of course, we’ll leverage Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr for the whole thing. Our aim is to keep Americans from relying on an emergency exit and instead empower them to embrace heart health and live a longer, stronger life and along the way, jet their hearts out. Healthy Jetting, Happy Hearts.