Design Your Own Health Warning At yheart.net
~ British Heart Foundation launches new youth website ~

A new British Heart Foundation (BHF) website is urging teenagers to have a go at designing their own health warnings for cigarette packets - and help put their friends and relatives off smoking for good.

Designed for 11-16 year-olds, yheart.net has just gone live this month and has a firm focus on interactivity, with competitions, quizzes, games and a 'Worry Zone', where you can ask questions about your heart health.

One of the headlining features is the challenge to devise the most striking health warning to make smokers stop and think. Suggested warnings include "Smoking - a dying habit!", or simply, "You smell awful!" The best will be showcased on the site, where you can print them off to stick on your friends' or relatives' packets.

The smoking section also provides suggestions for giving up and features a fast action anti-smoking shoot-em-up game, Soak-a-Smoker. The game involves blasting jets of water at smokers who pop up on the screen, but avoiding drenching the non-smokers. There is also a link to the BHF's anti-smoking microsite, which has more advice, info and games.

yheart also has novel advice for its users: surf, get involved and have fun but not for too long! The website features a message that pops up from time to time suggesting the user goes offline and does some physical activity. This means teenagers can find out loads about their hearts, and still put into practice the lessons they have learned. With obesity in teenagers a major issue in the UK (more than a quarter of 15-year-olds in England are overweight or obese), the BHF wants to encourage youngsters to enjoy as much exercise as possible.

Nicki Cooper, Head of Education at the British Heart Foundation, says: "The heart is the body's engine room, beating 100,000 times a day and pumping out up to 20 litres of blood every minute. If you don't look after it, it won't look after you, so learning about keeping it healthy is crucial. But yheart isn't about lecturing - there are plenty of laughs and cool stuff to do. Just don't get too addicted - we want you to get out and exercise too!"

The 'Destination Fitness' section invites visitors to write in about the sports they love, 'Food Stuff' includes lush recipes and an interactive quiz, the 'Worry Zone' has experts and other young people suggesting solutions to heart health issues and 'Pulse' includes funky animated diagrams of the heart and blood vessels to show exactly how the body works.

It might seem too early for teenagers to worry about heart disease, but research suggests habits formed in childhood are likely to continue into adulthood. Childhood obesity is on the rise, with youngsters spending more time indoors and less time participating in physical activity. In England, half of girls and nearly a third of boys aged 15 do not do the recommended level of at least an hour's physical activity a day.

At the same time, teenagers may be tempted to eat more fast foods and less fresh fruit and vegetables and some also start smoking. This lifestyle could lead to coronary heart disease in later life - which sadly kills 117,000 people every year. That's why the BHF wants to get teenagers interested in their heart health and encourage them to do more to keep their hearts pumping for longer.