Pssst... Tell 5, Pass It Along!

Today is the day! April 7th: National Start! Walking Day!!!!!

Wherever you are, sometime before the clock strikes midnight, get out and walk for  thirty minutes today - even twenty minutes if it comes down to squeezing it in while you're at work (on your morning or afternoon break?!).  Start walking for a healthier lifestyle (yup, I stole that last phrase from the American Heart Association website, but it's soooo true and simple).  You have to make the time for yourself.  Your well-being and health are priceless; you'll even feel a little less stressful after going for a thirty minute walk (I can pretty much guarantee it).  The American Heart Association even has a nifty online tracker, if you're like me, and prefer to see your progress in the days and months to come.  There is no time like the present!  I'll be doing the same thing today - I confess, I've slacked off ;-)  Begin the change today.  

More Reasons To Walk, Not Only For Your Heart, But For Your Brain! From HealthDay News

With the American Heart Association's (AHA) National Start! Walking Day fast approaching this Wednesday (just two days away!), read the article below to learn about another great reason to start walking regularly.   Participate in National Start! Walking Day wherever you are this April 7th!  Check out the details here.  When it really comes down to it, all you need is yourself, 30 minutes and a pair of comfortable shoes!!! 

Exercise May Stave Off Mental Decline

Monday,January 11, 2010 (Healthday News)

FRIDAY, Jan. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Exercise appears to help prevent and improve mild cognitive impairment, two new studies show.

Researchers found that people who did moderate physical activity in midlife or later had a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment and that six months of high-intensity aerobic exercise improved cognitive function in people with mild cognitive impairment.

Mild cognitive impairment is an in-between state between the normal changes in thinking, learning and memory changes that come with age and dementia, one of the studies explained. Up to 15 percent of people with mild cognitive impairment develop dementia each year, compared with 1 percent or 2 percent of the general population.

The first study included 1,324 dementia-free volunteers taking part in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. The participants completed a physical exercise questionnaire and were assessed and classified as having normal cognition (1,126) or mild cognitive impairment (198).

Those who said they did moderate exercise -- such as swimming, brisk walking, yoga, aerobics or strength training -- during midlife were 39 percent less likely to have mild cognitive impairment, while those who did moderate exercise later in life were 32 percent less likely to have the condition.

The Mayo team said exercise may guard against mild cognitive impairment through production of nerve-protecting compounds, increased blood flow to the brain, improved development and survival of neurons, and decreased risk of heart and blood vessel diseases.

The second study included 33 adults, average age 70, with mild cognitive impairment. Some were randomly assigned to do high-intensity aerobics for 45 to 60 minutes a day, four days a week. Others were put in a control group that had the same workout schedule, but did stretching exercises and kept their heart rate low.

After six months, the patients who did high-intensity aerobic exercise had improved cognitive function compared to those in the control group. The beneficial effects were more pronounced in women than in men, possibly because the body's use of and production of insulin, glucose and the stress hormone cortisol differed in women and men.

"Aerobic exercise is a cost-effective practice that is associated with numerous physical benefits. The results of this study suggest that exercise also provides a cognitive benefit for some adults with mild cognitive impairment," wrote Laura D. Baker, of the University of Washington School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, and colleagues.

The studies appear in the January issue of the Archives of Neurology.

More information

The Alzheimer's Association has more about mild cognitive impairment.

As a Patient, Advocate for Yourself!

Posted on Tue, Feb. 09, 2010

Cardiologist's advice about No. 1 killer of women

BY TERESA MEARStmears@mindspring.com

The leading killer of women isn't breast cancer or any other kind of cancer, but heart disease, which kills nearly twice as many women each year as die from all forms of cancer combined. During February, which is American Heart Month, many groups focus on women's heart health with screenings and the American Heart Association's ``Go Red'' movement to raise awareness. There was a time when women didn't respond well to treatment such as heart bypasses and stents, but that is changing, says Dr. Stratego ``Stacey'' Castanes, an interventional cardiologist who has been active in Miami-Dade heart health awareness events. ``One of the reasons we're doing better is patient education, women being advocates for themselves,'' says Castanes, who is in private practice and is also associated with the South Miami Heart Center. We talked to Castanes about women and heart disease. Her answers have been edited for space. Q: How is heart disease different in women than in men? A: The biggest difference is the symptoms, especially of heart attacks. The things that we classically describe to patients -- chest discomfort like an elephant sitting on the chest, radiation to the jaw and down the arm -- aren't quite the symptoms women feel. We still don't know how to describe the classic symptoms women feel. I've had women who were having a massive heart attack and they just felt as if all they needed to do was burp and it would get better. It fools everyone. My recommendation to women is if you're feeling bad enough to think that something's wrong and it's persistent and it continues to make you feel worse -- women still feel some kind of chest discomfort and some type of shortness of breath -- you should go to the emergency room. Q: What is the most important thing women can do to protect their hearts? A: The most important thing is exercise. Exercise can decrease your risk for breast cancer, treat depression, prevent heart attacks and strokes, control blood pressure, prevent adult-onset diabetes. The other important thing is having the same due diligence that women have for seeing their ob-gyn to seeing a cardiologist to determine their risk. Q: What are the risk factors for women? A: Smoking brings on heart disease, 10 to 20 years earlier. Strong family history of heart disease is a risk factor. Post-menopausal for women is a strong risk factor. Diabetes. High blood pressure. High cholesterol. The risk factors are basically the same for men. Q: Who needs cholesterol-lowering medication? A: There was an interesting study done in 2007 where they used criteria to determine if someone was low risk, intermediate risk or high risk for heart disease. Then they looked at patients who had reported a heart attack or stroke. The scariest part of the study was that 80 percent of the people, before their event, were considered low risk. Cholesterol is one of those things where there is no such thing as normal. Depending on the risk factors, you have to make the decision of whether to treat cholesterol. A cholesterol of 130 might be OK for one person but for another person who has a family risk of heart disease and is a smoker, that's not OK and that cholesterol needs to be treated. Q: Should women take a daily aspirin to lower their risk of heart disease? A: We have gone back and forth and been very confused throughout the years about what to recommend. For men it's very clear-cut. If you're in your 40s you should be on aspirin to prevent heart attack and stroke. Women tend to get heart disease later in life and there's an increased risk of bleeding with the aspirin. We initially didn't have clear-cut guidelines. Now the guidelines say if you're above 60 with one risk factor for coronary disease you should consider aspirin. If you have two risk factors, you should definitely be on aspirin. Q: What is the link between diabetes and heart disease? A: Basically we consider diabetes equivalent to heart disease. Diabetics are three to five times more likely to have coronary disease than their counterparts with all the same problems but not diabetes. Blood pressure needs to be very tightly controlled, even tighter than usual. Cholesterol needs to be tightly controlled. It seems that a lot of heart disease is linked to an inflammatory process. Diabetes is a constant inflammatory process. The endothelium, the tissue in the lining of the arteries, needs to work a certain way for the heart to function normally. Inflammatory states such as diabetes cause dysfunction of that endothelium, which results in coronary artery disease. Q: Why is blood pressure important? A: Blood pressure is important because it's so closely linked to increased risk of heart attack or stroke. On a very basic level, the endothelium gets pounded with these high blood pressures all day, which results in inflammation and damage to the endothelium. Q: What's your advice about diet? A: Physicians are always asked about diet, and the sad thing is we take less of a month of it in medical school. Nutritionists know this much better. One of the simplest things is that you should have as much color on your plate as possible. Yellow all over the plate -- pasta, corn, potatoes -- is not good.

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© 2010 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com

Retrospect: I am a Heart Attack Survivor

If you follow the news closely, and by closely I mean in a timely manner, you are aware of former President Bill Clinton's stent procedure that took place following "chest discomfort" today.  I can't help but feel heart-sick.

After reading my own post titled, 'It Hurts and It Hurts', I feel I haven't followed my own advice.  Had someone told me they were feeling the way I described in my post, I would have urged them to seek medical care.  Of course, I considered going to the hospital.  So, what held me back?  My $100 co-pay for the emergency room and the fact that the emergency room doctors never do anything.  It is a vicious cycle. Unless you are literally on your death bed (and they are able to determine so), the emergency room doctors seldom are proactive for patients.  I know I sound ungrateful.  I'm not ungrateful, however, this is my experience in the emergency room, time after time.  

When I had my heart attack, one of the responding Emergency Medical Technician's (EMT) tried to persuade me that I was fine and probably just overworked (I told the EMT I had been at the gym prior to calling 911).  Add that knowledge to the fact that I was overweight and only in my early thirties and it's plausible that the EMT felt I was someone older (in his opinion!), who was out of shape and had overexerted herself at the gym. I told the EMT (along with the 911 operator) that I felt I was having a heart attack.  

When I arrived at the emergency room by ambulance at the local hospital I was left on the gurney in the hallway.  The pain in my shoulder blades (a heart attack symptom in females) increased and I began yelling at any personnel who passed by, that I needed help and thought I was having a heart attack.  They looked at me like I was crazy.  I kept yelling (truly, this only went on for a few minutes, but situations like that feel like hours).  I was not about to be quiet.  They moved me into a room where they tried to calm me.  Finally they hooked me up to an electrocardiogram (EKG).  I kept asking if I was having a heart attack.  Suddenly the small room filled with people.  A man walked in, dressed in golfing attire (it was a Saturday afternoon).  When I saw him I immediately knew I was having a heart attack.  He took my hand and confirmed that I was having a heart attack; he was the cardiologist who saved my life and I will forever be thankful for him.  

I have never had any ill feelings towards the medical personnel who originally lacked reaction when I said I thought I was having a heart attack.  Heart attack in women is consistently misdiagnosed.  It is the numero uno killer of women.  Number 1!  Both medical personnel and we as patients have to be diligent about heart disease education; knowing the symptoms and better diagnosis on the part of medical professionals, to change the way that heart attack is overlooked in women.  I am a heart attack survivor, and it needs to remain that way, as it does with other women.
  
February is American Heart Month.  Please familiarize yourself with the differences between male and female warning signs of stroke and heart attack.  Second, make lifestyle changes if you haven't already done so.  Lastly, find out as much as you can about your family medical history:  there should be no question so uncomfortable as compared to saying goodbye too early to a loved one.

Macy's Goes Red For Women!

Go Red For Women is the American Heart Association's nationwide campaign to wipe out heart disease, the #1 killer of women. This effort celebrates our power to band together and fight back. One in three women dies from cardiovascular disease—and that number is simply too high. The good news? There's something we can do about it. It's time to take charge and give your heart the love it deserves!

• red is the color that saves—especially at our Wear Red Sale
• join Go Red For Women! sign up now
• take heart health to heart
• watch the Go Red For Women public service announcement
• read personal stories & share yours
• for more information, check out GoRedForWomen.org
  or en espanol GoRedCorazon.org 

Oh, Shoppers... (If You Happen to be in the Silicon Valley)

'GO RED FOR WOMEN' coming to Santana Row!!

I wish I could locate additional information regarding nationwide events taking place for all savvy shoppers out there: save some money (since you're already shopping of course!?) while donating to a cause! 

Are Heart Attacks More Deadly for Women?

Age or Illness May Cause the Gender Gap in Heart Attack Survival Rates, Study Shows

By LAUREN COX and COURTNEY HUTCHINSON

ABC News Medical Unit

Aug. 26, 2009—

Doctors have long known that women are nearly twice as likely as men to die in the first month after a heart attack. But a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked behind this statistic to discover that gender may not directly influence survival outcomes after a heart attack heart attack outcomes.

Theresa Volpe, 40, barely survived a massive heart attack two years ago. She said despite ongoing symptoms of dizziness and fatigue, when her chest pains struck, many people thought she had indigestion.

"I was so dizzy and light headed -- my arms felt heavy and weighed down," said Volpe. "The paramedics came and looked me over and said, well your heart rate is not so high maybe it's just anxiety."

But once a cardiologist saw her, she was immediately airlifted to a specialist center where it was discovered one of Volpe's major arteries was 90 percent blocked by plaque.

"I was lucky because a lot of women don't survive a heart attack," said Volpe, who is now a spokeswoman for the Go Red for Women campaign of the American Heart Association.

Investigating Why Women and Men's Heart Attacks Differ

To discover more about the difference in heart attack survival rates between the sexes, Dr. Jeffrey Berger and his colleagues at the New York University School of Medicine analyzed the medical records of more than 130,000 heart attack patients (72 percent men and 28 percent women) that were part of 11 international studies between 1993 and 2006.

Among all the studies, women died at a 9.6 percent rate compared with a 5.3 percent rate for men in the first month after a heart attack. Yet the study pointed out key differences between men and women in these statistics.

Women were having heart attacks at an older age than the men. Women were also more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure and heart failure while men were more likely to smoke, to have had a previous heart attack and have a previous bypass surgery.

Once the researchers compared men and women of the same age and health status, then the gender difference in survival rate disappeared.

How Gender May Not Matter in Heart Attack Survival

"[In our study] you see that women have almost a twofold increase risk for death after 30 days, which was found before, but the beauty of our study is we're able to look at reasons why this is," said Berger. "If you account for age, clinical risk factors that differ like hypertension, high cholesterol and numbers of arteries are blocked, there is not a difference."

"It's not being a man or woman that puts you at higher risk, it's these other factors," said Berger. Rather than focus on treating men and differently, Berger hoped doctors would start looking at treating older heart attack victims with specific health complications differently than other heart attack victims.

Indeed, Berger's study led some cardiologists to wonder if some of the differences between men and women in heart disease have been overblown.

Gender Differences in Heart Attacks

"The so-called 'gender differences' in heart disease have been hyped to a large extent," said Dr. Steven Nissen, director of the Joseph J. Jacobs Center for Thrombosis and Vascular Biology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio.

"The primary conclusion of this study is that there is not a higher mortality in women than men following a heart attack (when adjusted for severity of disease and co-morbidities)," said Nissen. "Accordingly, the study does not suggest a different strategy in women with heart attack. It appears that 'what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.'"

Yet other doctors point out that the study couldn't explain why women had their heart attacks at an older age, and in worse health in the first place. Moreover, doctors wondered whether there are still important differences to note about men and women leading up to the heart attack, if not in the 30 days that follow.

"This study tells us that even in this era of highly sophisticated diagnostic and treatment modalities for heart attack that women's heart disease is different from that seen in men and that women still fare worse," said Dr. Malissa Wood, of the cardiac unit of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Sex Differences in Heart Attack Symptoms Still Exist

"I believe that the big differences start before the heart attack ever happens," said Wood. "Once a woman presents with a heart attack and is of advanced age with diabetes and high blood pressure and their associated complications (blood vessel disease, kidney disease) the horse is out of the barn."

Volpe was only 38 when she had a heart attack. Despite her young age, she experienced some of the worst troubles that seem to affect women who have heart disease. First nobody could recognize her symptoms, and then nobody believed it when she had a heart attack.

"I was very tired, I was very fatigued. I was so tired I thought I was pregnant," said Volpe.

Volpe also occasionally went into dizzy spells, she got out of breath and she would experience chest pain. Her primary care doctor performed some tests -- an EKG and an echocardiography -- but when those came up normal Volpe's doctor suggested anti-anxiety medication.

"She had thought that I was suffering from a generalized anxiety disorder -- I was thinking the only thing that I'm anxious about is that I'm having chest pains," said Volpe.

Another round of tests at a gastrointestinal specialist couldn't explain her chest pains, so Volpe tried to relax with the occasional chest pain.

Then, on March 31, 2007 at a family birthday party she had a heart attack.

"At the ER, the cardiologist said we need to get to her out of here, she's having a massive heart attack and my husband said 'are you kidding,'" said Volpe.

Volpe now lives with four stents and must take a variety of medications for life.

"I wish I had the guts to say I want to see a cardiologist earlier," said Volpe, a mother of two school-age children. "Being so young, I was afraid to say I'd like to see a cardiologist."

More, Volpe wishes she had taken better care of herself.

"That's the huge thing. I really wish that I had taken better care of myself. You always think you have time. I don't have to worry about that until I'm older, but you're back pedaling," she said. "Every time I get on the treadmill I think I don't feel like it but this is what I have to do."

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

Untold Stories of the Heart

One woman dies almost every minute from heart disease. Yet studies show that only 21% of women view heart disease as their greatest health threat. The TV special, Untold Stories of the Heart, which premiered in 2008 and featured Marie Osmond, hosted by Hoda Kotb, raises awareness through the personal stories of women living with heart disease. Because for every heart there is a story, and these stories are at the heart of Go Red.

(above from the American Heart Association/Go Red For Women)