All Entries For heart disease
Living with Heart Disease
Heart disease affects millions of women, including the five who follow. What sets them apart from the rest? These survivors have made it their mission to raise awareness of heart disease in women and are active with the following organizations.
Go Red For Women
The American Heart Association's GRFW movement offers heart health information and resources, as well as advice for women by age group.
The Heart Truth
Educate women in your own community about heart disease with the help of this campaign from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
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3 Myths about Heartburn
Myth #1: You should avoid spices.
Reality - "Seasonings won't necessarily cause acid reflux," says Douglas Adler, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at the University of Utah. "The real culprits are usually acidic foods like citrus and tomatoes, which are used in spicy meals." Other offenders are caffeine (don't forget it's in chocolate too) and peppermint.
Myth #2: You'll only feel a burning in your chest.
Reality - Difficulty swallowing, a cough and a hoarse voice are other signs of acid reflux, says Vivek Kaul, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. If your throat feels funny after eating acidic foods, try antacids, not cough drops. Read More ›
What Women Really Need to Know about Heart Health
Editor's Note: February is Heart Health month, aimed at bringing awareness to the #1 killer in America. Today we're sharing an interview with Dr. Patrice Desvigne-Nickens on behalf of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and The Heart Truth®. Dr. Desvigne-Nickens answered our questions via email.
DailySpark: How early should women start to take steps to protect their heart health?
Dr. Desvigne-Nickens: Women need to take steps at every age to protect their heart health. Heart disease can begin early, even in the teen years, and it is important for women and girls at all ages to know about heart disease and follow a healthy lifestyle. Women in their 20s and 30s should take action to reduce their risk of developing heart disease.
DailySpark: What are the top lifestyle changes women can make to ensure their hearts stay healthy?
Dr. Desvigne-Nickens: Most heart disease risk factors are preventable or controllable by making healthy lifestyle changes, including: stopping smoking, being physically active, following a healthy diet, and maintaining a healthy weight. Additional risk factors that you can prevent and control include: high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and high blood sugar or diabetes. These conditions are silent (that is you don’t have any symptoms) so you must talk with your physician and know your numbers. High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and high blood sugar are often treatable with healthy lifestyle but may require medical prescriptions.
DailySpark: Which habits harm our hearts the most?
Dr. Desvigne-Nickens: Smoking, letting high blood pressure and high cholesterol go untreated, being overweight or obese, not being physically active, and not managing diabetes all can contribute to increasing a person’s risk for heart disease.
It is especially important to understand that that having more than one risk factor or condition multiplies your risk of developing heart disease. Having one risk factor doubles your risk for disease; having two risks quadruples your risk for developing disease; having three risks increases risk by tenfold. Don’t choose among risk factors, take charge and control your risks. You can reduce your risk for heart disease by over 80% by controlling risk factors and a healthy lifestyle.
DailySpark: How much impact does weight have on heart health?
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Women, Take This Doctor's Advice to Heart
Editor's Note: We're passionate about saving lives and preventing heart disease! Please share this blog post with other women in your life. Click the buttons above to share it on social media sites or send via email.
Happy American Heart Month!
February's best-known day is Valentine’s Day, and what with all the heart-shaped things associated with that occasion, it is the perfect month to highlight heart health and share with you what you can do to protect your most precious asset. Your heart will be there for you during all of your life’s adventures, but heart disease is a big threat to all of us! Heart disease is America’s number one cause of death.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- 1 in 3 deaths in the US is from heart disease and stroke
- That's equal to 2,200 deaths per day.
- 2 million heart attacks and strokes occur each year
- 80,000,000 adults are affected by heart disease
- Heart disease & stroke cost the nation $444 billion/year in health care costs and lost economic productivity.
In the not too distant past, heart disease was erroneously labeled as a "man’s" disease. The seemingly healthy father that suddenly dies of a heart attack leaving young children and a wife behind is a stereotypical nightmare scenario. Views like this have placed too much emphasis on men in heart-health research, and, as a result, both treatment guidelines and public health initiatives are skewed toward men.
But are you aware of the prevalence of heart disease in women? More than 42 million women are currently living with some form of cardiovascular disease. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women in America!
To change America’s perception that heart disease is a "man’s disease," the American Heart Association in 2004 created the campaign Go Red for Women to bring awareness to this largely preventative disease. Efforts such as Go Red for Women Day work because studies show that when women are aware of their risk for heart disease they are much more likely to make the effort to make the necessary lifestyle changes.
The same simple, lasting changes you're implementing as a way to lose weight will also help you keep your heart healthy: eat a healthy diet, maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly, don't smoke (or quit if you do), and limit your alcohol intake.
So, as women, what can we do specifically to improve our heart health? What should we be doing to keep our ticker ticking?
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Heart Healthy Advice from Cardiologist Moms
Find Reasons to Move
Sharonne Hayes, M.D., has a demanding schedule as director of the Mayo Clinic Women's Heart Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, which leaves scant time for hourlong workouts. So she makes an effort to get her physical activity in shorter increments throughout the day. "Studies show you reap the same health benefits in 10-minute bursts of activity," she says. She shuns the elevator for stairs, and you won't find her cruising the mall parking lot looking for a spot close to the entrance. "I'm an opportunistic exerciser. I fit it in whenever and wherever I can," she says—and so do her kids. This summer Dr. Hayes' 13-year-old son skipped the carpool and rode his bike to swim team practices. In the evening the entire family catches up on favorite TV shows while lifting weights or using cardio machines in their exercise room. "When the kids see my husband and me being active, it inspires them to join in," says Dr. Hayes. "Plus, it's a great way to spend time together as a family." Read More ›
Fish Recipes for Heart Health
You're off the hook for dinner tonight, thanks to these delicious (and heart-healthy) fish recipes.
Crispy Fish Sticks & Chili Dipping Sauce
Makes: 4 servings
Prep: 20 minutes
Bake: 10 minutes at 450 degrees F.
Broccoli-Carrot Slaw
In a large bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon sugar. Add 1 bag (12 ounces) broccoli slaw, 1 cup petite baby carrots and 2 sliced scallions; toss and coat with dressing. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
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Cooking from the Heart for the Heart
Cooking for a healthy heart is a passion of mine. Both my grandmother and cousin died young from heart disease, which is the number one killer in the United States. The exciting thing is that it's preventable with diet and exercise. Limiting sodium and eating good fats are a great place to start. For more information on heart-healthy cooking, watch Chef Meg's cooking video on SparkRecipes. Here are some of my favorite recipes. Read More ›
Chef Meg's Heart-Healthy Meals Video
If you're on heart-healthy diet, that doesn't mean you have to eat boring foods. The same flavor-boosting techniques that will help you lose weight also help keep your heart healthy.
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29 Best Tips for Heart Health Month
This month, we’re inviting you to do something different every single day to love your heart. Come back to the Family Circle site every morning in February for an easy tip that will improve your cardiovascular health.
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Should You Consult a Doctor before Starting an Exercise Plan?
"Consult a physician before using this equipment."
Have you seen this statement before? If the exercise equipment was manufactured in the last 30 years or so, this statement or a similar disclaimer is likely placed somewhere in small print. I see it (well, ignore it) just about every day when I step onto my elliptical. Gyms, exercise videos, and weight-loss reality shows for example all typically have similar disclaimers such as "consult a physician before starting any exercise program."
Even though we tend to ignore them, they're there!
Have you seen the one that reads: "stop exercising if you feel pain, faint, dizziness or shortness of breath"? This one may leave you thinking "you forgot sweat." Take it from someone who has gone from a sedentary to active lifestyle. I felt all of those things (still do on days when I do strength training for my legs)! I didn’t exercise to extreme pain, I never passed out, and I didn't feel severe pain, but certainly I felt all of those symptoms to some extent!
I’m sure many of you do what I did when I started exercising. I completely disregarded the warnings and started working out because I was tired of being overweight and unfit. I didn’t want to overcome yet another obstacle by waiting to talk to my doctor. (Doctors are notorious for being bad patients, by the way.)
Let’s get serious for a few moments and examine these disclaimers. Let's determine whether you actually need to consult with a physician before embarking on your exercise plan.
I feel slightly conflicted: I ignored the ubiquitous warnings to consult my doctor before I started working out 140 pounds ago, but I'm encouraging you as SparkPeople members to take an extra step to visit a physician before engaging in an exercise program. I know that when the inspiration to change strikes you need to take advantage of it, but as a doctor I know it's better to be safe than sorry (and SparkPeople agrees--and includes such a warning in the site's terms and conditions).
Thankfully, most people who choose to disregard these disclaimers do not suffer any consequences. But, some people will find out that they have a heart condition during exercise, injure themselves, or exacerbate their existing medical conditions. They may not even realize that they are putting their health at risk by trying to do what they believe is the right thing. The rest of you will be relieved to know that you can start exercising without pulling out your wallet for a co-pay (and not sitting in the waiting room at the height of flu season).
So how do you know which group you're in? Should you see your doctor or not?
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Reduce Your Stroke Risk – Eat More Fish
According to the National Stroke Association, a stroke or "brain attack" is the third leading cause of death in America and a leading cause of adult disability. Since up to 80 percent of strokes are preventable, knowing what you can do to reduce your risk is very important.
Everyone has some risks of stroke due to age, gender, race, and family history that can't be changed. These uncontrollable risks make it is even more important to control the risk factors that you can. According to a recent international analysis report, people that eat fish a couple times a week have a slightly smaller risk of suffering a stroke compared to those individuals that do not. The Dietary Guidelines recommend that Americans increase the amount and variety of seafood they consume by choosing more seafood each week as a protein source in place of other meat and poultry options. Fish provides a variety of beneficial nutrients including omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and selenium. Any or all of these nutrients could be the key to reducing stroke. Regardless of the reasoning, the analysis found that people who ate the most fish were 12 percent less likely to have a stroke compared to those people that ate the least.
Here are seven other key ways to reduce your stroke risk in addition to including more fish in your diet.
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Heart Health Tips from Dr. Oz
Perhaps you already know that heart disease kills more women than breast cancer -- more than all cancers combined, in fact. What you may not have heard is that the number of middle-aged women having heart attacks is on the rise. The good news: Heart disease is preventable if you make simple lifestyle changes. Dr. Oz is on call to teach you how.
What a Woman's Heart Attack Looks Like
It's not that women don't get chest pain during a heart attack. We can, although often women describe the sensation more as achiness, tightness, or pressure than as pain. But we're also more likely to experience other symptoms. While chest pain was the most common symptom for both men and women, according to a Swedish study of 225 first-time heart attack patients, women were more apt to report nausea, back pain, dizziness, and palpitations. Women were three times as likely as men to experience more than three heart attack symptoms at once. "Even doctors sometimes mistake women's symptoms for indigestion, heartburn, or the flu," says Dr. Oz.
Two Big Diet Fixes—Make 'Em Today!
Eat Less Sugar
Sugar hurts us in two ways, says Dr. Oz. First, the sugar molecule itself is like a jagged piece of glass that scrapes up the arteries as it travels through your bloodstream. That scarring catches plaque, allowing it to build up and narrow the arteries. Second, because sugar is stored as fat, it leads to weight gain, particularly around the belly. Most Americans take in about 22 teaspoons of sugar every day. Much of that comes from sodas and fruit drinks. Other sweeteners, like high fructose corn syrup, lurk in unlikely places, such as ketchup, mustard, and salad dressing. The American Heart Association now recommends that women limit added sugar consumption to 100 calories (about 6 teaspoons) a day, with no more than 450 calories a week coming from sugary drinks. That's less than half a 12-ounce can of regular soda a day. Dr. Oz's rule: "If high fructose corn syrup is one of the first five ingredients in a product or there's more than 4 grams of sugar per serving (that's 1 teaspoon), skip it."
Eat More Fatty Fish
As sources of protein go, it doesn't get much better than fish, which is low in artery-clogging saturated fat and high in omega-3 essential fats, which improve triglycerides, reduce artery plaque, and prevent irregular heartbeats that can cause sudden death. Women in the Nurses' Health Study who ate fish at least twice a week lowered their risk of dying from heart disease by 31 percent. Grill or bake (don't fry) salmon, shrimp, rainbow trout, pollock (the fish used to make imitation crab), or sardines. Dr. Oz also recommends taking 600 milligrams a day of the omega-3 essential fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
Read the rest of Dr. Oz's tips at FamilyCircle.com! Read More ›
VIDEO: Hands-Only CPR Made Easier
Even though we have written about hands-only CPR several times here on the dailySpark, we would like to share a fun video with you to help save lives. Ken Jeong, an actor/comedian/physician, teamed up with the American Heart Association to create this funny video using a popular disco tune to help continue promoting hands-only CPR. As you watch the video below, you will see that the video offers some simple tips on how to perform hands-only CPR, which will hopefully get people to be less afraid, but more willing to perform CPR when needed. Read More ›
Improve Heart Health with Short Activity Breaks
When I'm busy at work, I can easily go a few hours without getting up to move around. All of a sudden I'll look at the clock and think "Geez, when was the last time I stood up?" So I'll take a quick break, even if it's just to walk down the hall or go to the bathroom. I find those quick breaks give me a quick boost of energy and improve my concentration levels when I sit down to start working again. New research shows those quick breaks might also be keeping my weight in check and improving my health. Read More ›
Go Red for Women Tomorrow, Feb. 4!
What if I told you that heart disease kills more women than the next four causes of death, would that encourage you to change your lifestyle?
What if I told you heart disease takes the life of one woman every minute, would that encourage you to change your lifestyle?
What if I told you that 1 in 3 women die every year from heart disease compared to 1 in 30 who die from breast cancer, would that encourage you to change your lifestyle?
What If I told you 90 percent of us have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease, would that encourage you to change your lifestyle?
What if I told you 80% of cardiac events in women may be prevented, would that encourage you to change your lifestyle?
While these statistics provided by the American Heart Association are quite alarming, they are a reminder of the changes we can all make to reverse or at least slow down the progression of heart disease. Hope is not loss. And this is where the Go Red for Women campaign comes into play. The Go Red for Women campaign was designed to help educate women of the importance in making lifestyle changes now so that they may deter the staggering effects of heart disease later in life.
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