Good morning, Fam… I know I have left you hanging for the last few weeks. I have been busy handling some family business and medical issues. So please forgive me. Not only that, I have strayed off my course of regular exercise. I have kept up with my healthy eating plan, so there wasn’t much damage done, but YES, 1 pound crept up on me during that time. As I have said many times, it’s okay to fall off, but it’s a must to get back into the mode. I sure hope you have been keeping up with your efforts to GET and STAY on the road to a healthier lifestyle.
That being said, let’s talk about HEART DISEASE. This should be a hot topic every day, especially for women. Why? Because heart disease is the #1 killer of women. In the United States, a woman out there dies from heart disease, stroke, or some other cardiovascular disease every minute. Signs of a heart attack vary in men and women. Many times women will ignore their symptoms. Men and women may experience the stabbing chest pressure, but women can have a heart attack without that infamous chest pain/pressure. Women may experience pain or pressure in the abdomen or jaw, nausea/vomiting, dizziness, fainting, and fatigue.
Let’s understand the basics of the heart a little better. The heart is a muscle about the size of your fist. The heart and all of its veins and arteries pump blood to and from your organs. If the pumping mechanism is affected by the wrong amount of pressure, infections, thickening of the arteries, etc…you could have a heart attack. A heart attack means that part of the heart muscle dies and NOW, what is remaining has to do the work. So we really need to take care of the one and only heart we have. Mayoclinic.com has a very good, detailed explanation of how the heart and lungs work together to keep us alive and kicking. Take a look for yourself.
There are risk factors that we should consider when trying to analyze whether or not we are susceptible to heart disease. Some factors we have no control over. The American Heart Association lists several risk factors that are out of our control. Increasing age—most people who die from coronary heart disease are 65 or older, male gender—men are at a greater risk of heart attack than women and tend to have them at an earlier age, heredity—children whose parents have heart disease, Afro Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, native Hawaiians and some Asian Americans are at higher risk of heart disease. If you have diabetes, you need to keep your blood sugar and weight under control. Less control means a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.
The risk factors we can control, we should definitely work on… I can guarantee that most of you know at least ONE of these. Let’s see, there is smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, and physical inactivity. Stress can also aggravate other risk factors like blood pressure. Also, poor dental hygiene can lead to infections that affect the heart.
Do I really need to say it again, Fam??? Let’s get up and get some regular exercise into our daily activities. Let’s take a look at our bad dietary habits and make some changes. Get rid of that smoking habit. Work on you, Family… Work on you!!! SMOOCHES...
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