Thanks to Valentine’s Day, February is often associated with hearts and the color red. That’s why the Iowa office of the American Heart Association is again launching its National Wear Red Day. Association spokeswoman Alexson Calahan says this year’s special day is Friday.

“We ask everyone to wear red to show their support for people who are fighting or who have fought heart disease,” Calahan says. “We’ll have a lot of on-line tools so you can share pictures of yourself wearing red and spread the word. We’re looking to have the whole state go red on Friday.” Calahan says Iowans can go to a specific website to gauge their heart health — MyLifeCheck-dot-org.

It’s a website you can go to and take a simple quiz about your daily habits, your cholesterol numbers, your height, your weight, things like that, and it will give you a heart score on a scale of one-to-ten,” Calahan says. “From that, you can learn seven simple ways you can take care of your heart and stay heart healthy.”

Those tips include: quitting smoking, eating better and exercising more. You can also learn more at: “www.heart.org“.

Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City