Heart Matters – Free service from the British Heart Foundation
Heart and circulatory disease is the UK’s single biggest killer.
Heart Matters is a free service from the British Heart Foundation. It is a useful service to find out about heart disease for yourself or for a family member or friend; or if you are looking at ways to keep your heart healthy.
It includes a Heart Health Lifestyle Check with advise on living a healthy lifestyle, regular issues of Heart Matters Magazine, a dedicated HelpLine and online tools and resources. All this is provided completely Free.
I took the Lifestyle check and came out pretty well. It’s a straight-forward questionnaire asking the usual questions about weight, lifestyle and eating and drinking habits, but provides a good summary with personalised information on how to improve your lifestyle. It also includes a Doctors Report which you can print off to give to your GP. In my case the Doctors report only gave the overall score information and my weight; there is a section “Areas for focus” which had no issues on mine, but would be useful for anyone whose lifestyle was putting them at risk (ie. me before I lost a lot of weight). Of course to get the most out of the Health Lifestyle check you need to be honest with your answers.