Time to get all red in the face while sporting your red running shorts, red sneakers, red iPod, maybe even your red hat and gloves if you prefer an outdoor workout but are buried in snow lately. February 6 is the day reserved for red. Are you ready? Andie MacDowell is. She's lending her support to the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign.

This Friday is National Wear Red Day. Why not band together with workout partners, co-workers and family members to draw attention to women's heart health?

Wearing red on the 6th is a great idea, but it's even more important to show your support for heart health on a daily basis, through a clean diet and and a good amount of exercise. The American Heart Association has lots of tools including heart-healthy recipes and a fitness plan.

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Dr. Thomas R. Frieden isn't afraid to step up to the front lines of the nutrition wars. In the past, he has helped to affect change with reducing trans fats and posting nutrition information in restaurants. Now, Dr. Frieden is fighting the war against salt.

Around 80 percent of sodium in the average American's diet comes from processed foods. Dr. Frieden met with some of the big-wigs in the world of food processing to suggest a plan of action. He wants the sodium in processed foods cut by 25 percent in five years, and another 25 percent in a decade.

To me, on the health and wellness side of things, that seems like a generous time frame. But can't you just imagine the reactions the food processing execs had? After all, salt is an important ingredient for the food processors. Not only does it add flavor, it reduces dryness in some products, covers up metallic/chemical tastes in drinks, and even helps make cookies and cakes sweeter.

Dr. Frieden estimates that a 50 percent reduction in the sodium content of processed foods could potentially save 150,000 lives in America each year. That's a pretty big incentive, don't you think?

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Last night, I went to sleep around 11:30 only to wake up at 3:00 AM. Darn insomnia. For me, sleep is as elusive as the Loch Ness monster. It's a bummer, too, because sleep is so important for health. Not only does it directly affect your energy level, a good night's rest can also help you manage your weight, and research now shows that skipping sleep can harden your arteries.

If you're like me and sleep doesn't come easy, try these tips:

• Exercise regularly, but not within three hours of bedtime.
  
• Don't eat or drink a lot before bed.
• Stick to a schedule, and try to go to bed at roughly the same time each night.
• Make your bedroom restful by turning out all the lights, keeping the TV and radio off and maybe investing in a white noise machine (or using something like a quiet fan or air purifier for white noise).
• Relax before bedtime with a bath, a book or anything else that calms you. Avoid the computer and TV right before bed as they can be stimulating.

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Fish has some powerful health benefits -- it's great for heart health and even has perks for brain power. Now we're learning that eating fish twice a week can reduce the risk of kidney disease in people with diabetes.

Protein in urine is an early sign of kidney disease. In a recent study, people who ate fish once a week or less were more likely to have protein in their urine than those who ate fish at least twice a week.

If you want to incorporate more fish in your diet, check out AOL Health's dish on fish. They've got the low-down on the risks (mercury, etc.) compared to the benefits as well as the various benefits of different types of fish. And before you go shopping at the fish market, you may want to check out Fitz's post on fishy business.

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The American Heart Association's Go Red campaign draws attention to heart disease in women. The organization recently announced the nine women that are going to be the faces of the campaign.

While having a celebrity promote a cause is inspiring, I think having real women -- women that could be your friends, sisters, neighbors -- is even more inspiring. Take 39-year-old Cathy for instance; she's an athlete but when her heart rate skyrocketed unexpectedly she went to the doctor and was later diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. Or 53-year-old Patricia who underwent surgery after learning she had a severely blocked artery; while on the operating table she went into cardiac arrest and was miraculously revived. Their stories are going to be aired on NBC soon; AHA has an airtime schedule for your convenience.

You can also take inspiration from the seven real women that are the faces of AHA's Choose to Move fitness program.

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Want to cut your heart attack risk in half? How about boosting your immune system by 30%? You can have these perks and more just by (ahem) getting busy.

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Just walking a few short blocks can make a big difference in heart health for the elderly. A recent study found that light exercise such as walking or dancing can prevent atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation is a common heart condition where the upper chambers of the heart twitch instead of beating steadily. The condition is most common in people over age 65, though there is an elevated number of cases in younger people who exercise vigorously (e.g. marathon runners).

The researchers studied the lifestyle habits of more than 5,000 people (average age of 73) and found that those who were active had a reduced risk of the heart condition. In fact, those who walked five to 11 blocks a week had 22% less risk of developing the condition.

AOL Health has more information on healthy aging.

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Women are living longer, healthier lives than ever before. That's why it's even more important today to prevent one of the leading causes of death among women: heart disease. In fact, heart disease is the leading cause of death among women over 65.

While most of the risk factors, signs and symptoms are the same in women as they are in men, there are unique aspects to women's heart health that are different, so it's important to get tested. And though many tests measure cardiac health, some are better at detecting disease in women.

According to MORE magazine, these are the tests that you should be asking for and why:

• Stress echocardiogram -- A stress echocardiogram uses ultrasound to show the heart's motion at rest and at peak exercise and is more accurate for women than conventionsl stress testing, which can lead to false positives in women.

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I found this recent study in London to be quite fascinating. I always noticed more people taking the elevator than the stairs at shopping malls but when they were warned about the possible side effects it would have on their heart, many of them stopped and started to walk.

Researchers put up this sign: "Attention all shoppers: taking the stairs protects your heart." And it actually worked. The use of the stairway more than doubled over a six-week period.

Since only half of adult Americans exercise, do you think focusing on using stairs more often could help improve our health habits and physical activity?

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