The Eastern Shoshone Tribe has received over 200 thousand dollars to help fight heart disease.  The Tribe’s Director of Health Programs Cathy Keene says the money from the AstraZeneca Foundation is allowing them to address a problem that kills half the members of the Wind River Reservation.  Keene says they have developed a cardiovascular health education program that will hopefully help prevent heart disease.

“Healthy lifestyles, behavior change, about leading better lives, and teach people to be a little more self-responsible for themselves and teaching them to take care of themselves.  Whether it’s around nutrition, diet, exercise.”

Keene says they used a similar approach with a program designed to reduce diabetes on the reservation with great success. 

“You know around Diabetes we’ve seen their A1-C’s drop, weight loss, people actually getting more active, so it’s allowed us to re-think even in our own programming what we can do.”

Keene says they have already started Heart Healthy classes and will follow those up with a 16 week

Lifestyle Balance program, which will focus on physical activity and a healthy diet.