Fitness Celebrity John Basedow To Warm-Up Participants

American Heart Association's Long Island Start! Heart Walk

John Basedow, international fitness personality and host of the best-selling videos Fitness Made Simple, will appear at the American Heart Association's Long Island Start! Long Island Heart Walk on Sunday, September 28 at Nassau Community College. Mr. Basedow will warm-up the participants of the Walk with a 10 minute group stretch session from the stage just prior to the event.

This year, Heart Walk is presented nationally by Subway, Healthy Choice and AstraZeneca. Top local sponsors include North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System, Astoria Federal and Optimum Lightpath. Media Sponsors are WBAB-FM 102.3, WBLI-FM 106.1, CW-11 and Long Island Pulse Magazine.

More than 3,000 Long Island residents will take steps, literally, to fight heart disease and stroke - when they participate in the American Heart Association's Long Island Start! Heart Walk. The non-competitive 5k (3.1 mile) walk raises funds to support heart disease and stroke research and educational programs in the Long Island community. The Long Island Start! Heart Walk also promotes walking as part of a healthy lifestyle.

"Exercise for as little as 30 minutes every day can have such benefits as controlling cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and it can also help reduce blood pressure, said Mr. Basedow. "Healthy people - as well as many people with cardiovascular disease - can improve their fitness and overall health with even moderate exercise."

Diseases of the heart are Long Island's No. 1 cause of death; stroke is No. 3. Together these cardiovascular diseases kill more than 870,000 Americans each year. On Long Island, major cardiovascular diseases claim the lives of more than 9,600 people each year, including more than 5,647 women.

Join John Basedow, survivors, families, friends, company teams and 3,000 Long Island residents on Sunday, September 30, 2007 at Nassau Community College to help fight heart disease and stroke. The Health fair and registration tents open at 8:30 a.m. while the Walk is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m.

To learn more about the Start! movement or register today for the Long Island Start! Heart

Walk on September 28, call the American Heart Association office at (516) 777-8447 or visit www.longislandheartwalk.org. For information about the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women, Power To End Stroke and The Alliance for a Healthier Generation movements, contact 516-777-8447 or visit www.ameicanheart.org.

About the American Heart Association
Founded in 1924, the American Heart Association today is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary health organization dedicated to building healthier lives, free of heart disease and stroke. These diseases, America's No. 1 and No. 3 killers, and all other cardiovascular diseases claim nearly 870,000 lives a year. In fiscal year 2006-07 the association invested more than $554 million in research, professional and public education, advocacy and community service programs to help all Americans live longer, healthier lives. To learn more, call 1-800-AHA-USA1 or visit americanheart.org.

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