Protect Your Heart
We are bombarded in the media with songs and movies about protecting our hearts. Many women focus on protecting our hearts against heartache and grief but overlook protecting it from the most painful hurt of all, heart disease. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease kills 500,000 women each year in the US. Heart disease kills more women than all types of cancer combined. It is the number one killer of women for over 100 years.
You maybe thinking that heart disease is only for the old and the weak, but you would be mistaken. Heart disease is increasingly becoming a young women’s disease. Don’t let this scare you, if you learn the warning signs of a heart attack, you will have a better chance of surviving a heart attack. According to the Heart and Stroke foundation the warning signs of a heart attack in a woman are:
- Sudden discomfort or pain that does not go away
- Pain maybe in chest, neck, jaw, shoulders, arms or back
- Pain may feel like burning, squeezing, heaviness, tightness or pressure
- In women pain may be more vague
Serious heart disease can lead to a heart attack. What is heart disease? The technical name of heart disease is Atherosclerosis, which is commonly called “hardening of the arteries.” Blockage of the arteries prevents oxygen from reaching the heart. Without a low-cholesterol diet and an active lifestyle including daily exercise, blockages of arteries can lead to a full blown heart attack.
Prevention is the key. If you start exercising and eating better you will greatly reduce your risks of heart disease. If you would like to know how your heart is doing, take the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s Physical Activity and Heart Disease IQ test.
