5 Things Women should know about heart disease.

Looking after our hearts should be our top priority. Here's why:

1.       Heart disease is a number one killer of women. World Heart Foundations says cardiovascular disease (CVD) is responsible for two million premature deaths per year. CVD kills more women than cancer, tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and malaria combined. 

2. According to doctors, women do not have the same symptoms as men, they don’t have the classic chest pains, but instead they feel fatigue, nausea, indigestion and shortness of breath. As women we have to take more care with our health: this means reducing our risk factors.

3. Women have the same risk factors as men – smoking, diabetes, cholesterol and family history. On top of that women have additional factors as well; notably menopause, pregnancy obesity, and stress.

4. Broken Heart Symptom is a recently recognized heart condition brought on by stressful situations. This is a temporary situation suffered mostly by women caused by a sudden surge of stress hormones recognized by shortness of breath and chest pain.

5. Scientific studies carried out over the years show that adhering to a Mediterranean diet can reduce our risk of cardiac disease.

Understanding Heart Disease Today 

The celebrities in their stunning red dresses parade elegantly down the runway. They were there to present the American Heart Association’s “Go Red for Women” Red Dress collection, a colorful event which took place at the department store Macy’s in February 2016.

The gathering of top models, designers, and celebrities wanted to show their support and to help raise awareness of cardiovascular disease, an illness that affects 44 million women in the United States. Wearing red for this disease is the obvious choice because red stands out and is the color associated with our hearts.

Women suffer more than men from diseases of the heart, and the only way to bring down these high figures is by education. The American Heart Association asks women everywhere to wear red every first Friday in February; it is a ritual they say is beginning to bear fruit, as 90% of women have made at least one healthy behavior change. In the UK, the statistics are also high; the country observes National Heart Month in February as well. 

With more heart awareness taking place worldwide, women are now checking their cholesterol, increasing their exercise, and making lifestyle changes to prevent cardiac events from happening

We’d all like our blood to be freely flowing through our bodies, but blood vessels can sometimes get obstructed, and when they do, they can wreak havoc. If blood flow to the brain is not progressing correctly, the body suffers a stroke—a brain attack that disrupts the abilities related to the affected part of the brain; it can come on suddenly, causing numbness, sudden confusion, and dizziness. 

Strokes occur when a clot (a fatty deposit) blocks the artery in the brain. Equally serious is a heart attack, which causes damage to the heart’s muscles when vital oxygenated blood cannot get to those tissues.

This, too, is mainly due to a blood clot, blocking the coronary artery supplying blood to the heart. We are familiar with blood clots; we can see the sticky blood cells appear whenever we injure ourselves and form a scab over the cut. That is how the body responds to injury. However, what we do not want are those clots in our blood vessels.

An extract from Chapter 7 of the book  7 WONDERS OF OLIVE OIL

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