Healthbeat by Deirdre Cox Baker

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I started getting tummyaches as a little kid, about as far back as I can remember. My sisters used to brew me a cup of tea to help me feel better.

Maybe that’s when I picked up the hot-tea-in-the-morning habit. As an adult, and for many years, I would be one of the few morning tea drinkers in an office, sometimes the only one. It’s actually kind of an obsession … one time my husband and I were travelling by car, and I insisted on stopping in Dyersville, Iowa, to get my morning tea. The place didn’t have any. The poor person on duty had to hear it from me on how that was a horrible oversight.

It’s only the past few years that tea has been touted for it’s cancer-prevention effects. Green and black teas have 10 times the amount of antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables, by one estimate, according to this article.

Green, black and oolong teas all some from the same tea plant but are processed differently. The world’s big tea-drinking countries, Japan and China, have less heart disease and don’t have some of the cancers found in the Western World.

It’s nice to have a personal obsession evolve into a healthful habit.

During this month of hearts, it appears that Feb. 20 is National Woman’s Heart Day. Who knew?

Not I, who, beyond having what is hopefully a healthy heart, also tries to be pretty well versed in topics of the heart.

There’s a national non-profit foundation dedication to the prevention of heart disease called “Sister to Sister.” This foundation boils all the suggestions of heart health into three subject areas:

1. Get screened and memorize those numbers. The basic tests to identify personal risk factors includes: A check of your blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides, Body Mass Index, or BMI, waist circumference and family history.

2. Take action on what you learn. Lifestyle changes such as exercising more and eating right can decrease heart risks by as much as 82 percent, Sister to Sister reports.

3. Don’t do it all alone. Get a support network together of women friends and family members to put you on track to success.