What you can do

Want to make a difference in your own life, your family or your community? Below are some suggestions on what you can do to help:

What You Can Do - At Home

• If you have been prescribed medication for high blood pressure and/or cholesterol, it is important to take it as directed.
• Know the warning signs for heart attacks and strokes. Don’t be afraid to call 911.
• Be a role model. Teach your children healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains are yummy and good for our bodies.
• Talk to your children about limiting unhealthy foods such as fast food and junk food. Avoid extreme dieting and an obsession with body weight, by focusing on health rather than appearance.
• Always check food labels for fat, calorie, and sodium content. Avoid buying sugary cereals. A diet with 30% or fewer total calories from fat and low in saturated fat along with regular exercise may lower your cholesterol level. Click here for information on how to read a food label.
• Limit soda and sugared fruit drinks (eg., fruit punch, lemonade).
• Plan family activities such as walking, hiking, or biking. Healthy Maine Walks.
• Limit the time children spend watching TV and on the computer to fewer than two hours total per day.
• If you smoke, there are ways to help you stop. Keep your children safe from secondhand smoke by not smoking in the house or car. Teach children from an early age the dangers of tobacco use and how hard it is to quit once you’ve started smoking.

 

What You Can Do - In Your Community

• Ask for school gyms and pools to be available during evening and/or weekend hours for public use.
• Ask town planners to require sidewalks and bike paths in new developments.
• Encourage your town to have tobacco-free playing fields.
• Ask local restaurants to offer low or nonfat milk and salad dressings, as well as healthy entrees.
• Encourage community groups to provide a healthy food option at events they sponsor.
• Work with local community groups and town officials to develop and maintain safe walking and biking trails.

 

What You Can Do - With Your Health Care Provider

• Have your blood pressure checked at every visit to your provider or at least every two years. Ask your provider what your blood pressure is and what the numbers mean.
• Ask to have your cholesterol checked at least every five years. Ask your provider what the numbers mean.
• Always inform your provider of any family history of high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, heart disease or stroke.
• If you have a family history of diabetes, request to have a blood test done to check for it.
• Ask your provider for information on how you can decrease your risk of having heart disease and/or stroke.
• If you smoke, talk to your provider about ways to stop smoking.

 

What You Can Do - In Schools

• Encourage schools to assure every child has some physical activity every day in school.
• Ask for healthy food options like low-fat milk, vegetables and fruits always be available.
• See that vending machines offer healthy food options, not soda and candy.
• Urge implementation of a policy banning tobacco use on school grounds and at all school functions.
• Work with school and town officials to develop and maintain safe walking and biking routes to school.
• See that healthy options are offered at sporting and other group events.

 

What You Can Do - At Work

• Form a team to identify new ways to support employee health.
• Ask employees about their interests and develop a written plan of new health strategies, including timeline, cost and person responsible.
• Create an honor system healthy snack program with fruit, yogurt, string cheese, reduced fat milks, trail mix and nuts.
• Post resources for quitting tobacco and information on the Maine Tobacco HelpLine for coworkers who may be ready to stop smoking.
• Create indoor and outdoor walking routes and/or fitness trails around the grounds.
• Develop a written tobacco use policy to address smoking at entryways, designated smoking areas or banning smoking on grounds.
• Provide onsite blood pressure and cholesterol screening programs.
• Start a walking group that walks before work, during breaks, and/or after work.

 

What You Can Do - With Your Government

Your participation in the legislative process is vital to the health of you, your family, and your community. Your legislators can only represent you and your community as well as they understand your interests and the affect their decisions will have on your health. If you think they should be addressing certain issues or voting in a certain way on an issue, it is your responsibility to let them know.

Encourage your State legislators to pass laws that have a positive effect on the heart health of people living in Maine, including laws that promote and support physical activity, healthy eating, being tobacco-free, controlling high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and appropriate treatment of heart attack and stroke.

• Learn how to influence State government on issues you care about.
  • Learn the legislative process: how an idea becomes a bill and then a bill becomes a law. See “Welcome to the Path to Maine Lawmaking!” from the Maine Secretary of State’s Web site, or “Maine’s Path of Legislation” from the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library’s Web site.
  • Know your legislators and government officials.
  • Learn how to contact your legislators.
  • Find information on current bills, laws, and regulations.
• Seek opportunities to have your voice heard.
  • Testify at public hearings
  • Provide comments
  • Write letters to your public officials.
  • Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Click here to find contact information for your local media.
  • Search the Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Legislation Database for information on bills in Maine and other states

There are explanations and tools to help you with legislative research at the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library’s Web site.

Maine CVH Policy Inventory

Inventory of Maine laws and regulations related to CVH and MCVHP priority areas.

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