The Daily Procrastinator

(Note: Today is National Wear Red Day for women’s heart disease awareness.)

This isn’t a post about Valentine’s Day or romances gone bad. This is the story of women, heart disease, and the importance of taking care of yourself and being an advocate for your own healthcare. This post was going to be poignant and personal, but sometimes personal is too hard to write.

Here are the basics that you need to know.

The Statistics

· Eight million American women live with heart disease

· Six times as many women will die from heart attacks as will die from breast cancer

· The rate of sudden cardiac death in women in their 30s and 40s increased by 30% in the last decade

· Because the symptoms aren’t as obvious for women as men, heart disease is more likely to kill women.

Don’t ignore symptoms.

For women, heart disease doesn’t present the same clear-cut symptoms as it does with men. There’s no crushing chest pain, no tingling in the left arm. Women are most likely to experience:

· Unusual fatigue

· Sleep disturbance

· Shortness of breath

· Weakness

· Indigestion

· Anxiety

· Dizziness

The Risk Factors

· Diabetes

· Overweight

· Smoker

· High blood pressure

· High cholesterol

Why I’m writing this

Five years ago, my mother died after a heart attack. She was 55 years old. She went to the hospital after experiencing shortness of breath for weeks, which she thought had triggered an anxiety attack. In reality, she had extensive blockages in the three main coronary arteries, and had neglected her symptoms for so long that her heart was permanently damaged.

Know your risk factors. Know the symptoms. Visit your doctor for routine check-ups. Ask for second and third opinions, and listen to them. If my mother had followed these basic steps, I wouldn’t be writing this today.