Wayne State College held the event for World Heart Day on Oct. 8 to help spread word about exercising and eating healthy. World Heart Day is a day to raise awareness for cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke.

According to Exercise is Medicine, a site managed by the American College of Sports Medicine, Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. The best way to try to prevent some heart diseases is to eat healthy and to exercise on a regular basis. Exercising will also improve your mood and slow the effect of aging. The best way to start exercising is to simply sit less and move more and gradually work your way up.

“World Heart Day is very important,” Colton Beacom, a WSC business major, said. “I think this is a great thing that Wayne State is trying to spread the importance of exercising and eating healthy.”

At the event students could find handouts with tips on how to exercise and eat healthy on a regular basis even if they already had a disease like diabetes, depression, or anxiety.

“This event has a lot of potential to help people,” Beacom said.

National guidelines recommend 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activity. That’s only two and a half hours out of 168 hours in a week. A person could also do 75 minutes of hard intensity physical activity per week. Examples of moderate intensity would be walking, slow biking, and doubles tennis. Examples of hard intensity would be jogging, swimming laps and fast bicycling.

“You can learn a lot of helpful stuff from these handouts that Wayne is providing,” attendee Joe Bauer said. WSC is helping bring attention to the importance of exercising and healthy eating which can save people’s lives by preventing heart disease.