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February is Women’s Heart Health Month, but it is crucial that women be aware of heart health year-round. The heart is the body’s engine that pumps blood throughout all the organs, arteries and veins. The heart is also considered to be the source of emotions, desire and wisdom. These are significant reasons to guard, protect and care for your heart because if it is in poor condition all types of maladies can occur.

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in women in the United States.

America’s war against heart disease was instituted 75 years ago in 1948 when President Harry Truman signed the National Heart Act establishing the National Heart Institute (now the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute). In 2023, heart disease continues to be the number one cause of death in the United States of America.

What Is Heart Disease?

When people talk about heart disease, they’re usually talking about coronary heart disease (CHD). It’s sometimes called coronary artery disease (CAD). This is the most common type of heart disease.

When someone has CHD, the coronary arteries (tubes) that take blood to the heart are narrowed or blocked. This happens when cholesterol and fatty material, called plaque, build up inside the arteries.

Several things can lead to plaque building up inside your arteries, including:

• Too much cholesterol in the blood
• High blood pressure
• Smoking
• Too much sugar in the blood because of diabetes

When plaque blocks an artery, it’s hard for blood to flow to the heart. A blocked artery can cause chest pain or a heart attack.

Ladies take steps today to lower your risk of heart disease.

To help prevent heart disease, you can:

• Eat healthy
• Get active
• Stay at a healthy weight
• Quit smoking and stay away from secondhand smoke
• Control your cholesterol and blood pressure
• Drink alcohol only in moderation
• Manage stress

Risk for heart disease:

Having high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes

• Smoke
• Overweight or obesity
• Inactivity
• Diets high in sugar and fat

Your age and family history also affect your risk for heart disease. Your risk is higher if:

• You are a woman over age 55
• Your parents or siblings had heart disease before age 55

When Robert, my brother experienced a health event over twenty years ago; he went to a hospital emergency facility and was diagnosed with diabetes. Two days later he fell over at the kitchen table and went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at the hospital at the age of 50 as the result of a heart attack. My father was diagnosed with heart disease in his forties and died of a heart attack in his sixties after surgery.

I’m just realizing some of my family’s heart health history through intentional research. I’m grateful to have acquired this information so that I can pass it on to my two surviving sisters, my son, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Family heart health history is invaluable to each of us. I’m at risk for heart disease based on my family history.

Today I eat healthily, I move my body daily by walking at least 10,000 steps per day, and I don’t eat flour or sugar products or processed foods. My primary beverage is water. I drink an occasional cup of herbal tea. I know my blood pressure readings, cholesterol numbers and A1C numbers. I’m doing my best to protect my heart for as long as I can.

What every woman should know about the risk factors and symptoms of heart disease:

Here are some facts as outlined by MedStar Health.

“Approximately one in three women in the United States has some form of cardiovascular disease, and 90 percent of women have at least one risk factor for heart disease and stroke. This contributes to a sobering fact: heart disease is the leading cause of death among American women, The good news: it is largely preventable.

One of the most important steps you can take to prevent heart disease is to learn more about both the risk factors and symptoms in women.

Signs that you are having a heart attack.

Neck, jaw, shoulder, upper back or upper belly (abdomen) discomfort.

• Shortness of breath.
• Pain in one or both arms.
• Nausea or vomiting.
• Sweating.
• Lightheadedness or dizziness.
• Unusual fatigue.
• Heartburn (indigestion)

Heart disease in women: Understand symptoms and risk factors

https://www.mayoclinic.org›heart-disease›art-20046167

Risk factors for women:

Risk factors are aspects of your medical history, your family’s medical history, and your lifestyle that contribute to heart disease. Risk factors fall into three categories:

• Those you cannot control
• Those you can help manage, with your doctor’s guidance
• Those that can contribute to heart disease that you should discuss with your doctor.

Risk factors you cannot control:

• Age:   As women age, their risk increases because of lower estrogen levels and the chances of developing additional health issues that can affect the heart.
• Family history:   You are at greater risk if an immediate family member had heart disease at an early age—55 for a male relative or younger than 65 for a female relative.
• Race:   African-American and Hispanic women have a higher risk than Caucasian women.
• Gender:   Women have a lower risk than men of developing heart disease before menopause, but after menopause, the risk is about equal.

Women, as you rock your red this month in commemoration of women’s heart health month, know your risk factors, and family heart health and be aware of any symptoms that may be alerting you that something unusual is going on in your body.

Keep your engine (heart) in tip-top shape!