Women and Heart Disease

In my journey with coronary artery disease I have been made very aware of the sometime lethal discrepancies between the diagnostic protocols used to treat men as opposed to women. The sad reality is that many women just do not receive the same level of care that men normally receive. I have been privileged to become acquainted with the woman who wrote the book on women and heart disease, From the Heart: A Woman's Guide to Living Well with Heart Disease. Kathy recently wrote an op-ed for the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal. Click here to read the article, and if you know a woman who has been through bypass surgery or any heart related issue her book is a must read. 

Motivations for Heart Healthy Living

The beautiful red head in the picture is my daughter, Heather, standing next to her husband, Tim. In February of next year she is due to deliver ourfirst grandchild. They know she is carrying a little girl who will be named Savannah. Knowing that she is on the way is a real motivator to me to make good lifestyle choices.  I have found that the further I am removed from my surgery the more I need to be motivated to eat right and exercise. I have also found that my yet unborn granddaughter, Savannah, is proving to be a great incentive to live heart healthy. I want to be around to spoil her. I want to be around to hear her call me grandaddy, and I want to be around long enough for her to remember me for the rest of her life.  I am truly a blessed person with so much to live for. Having a loving supportive family, I am convinced, is on of the main reasons why I am doing so well today.  I love my family and appreciate so much what they have done to help see me through a really tough time. 

Food and the Holidays

Well I made it through Thanksgiving sort of. If a person is trying to eat heart healthy the holidays can be a killer. This seems especially true in the South where I live. In the South even spinach can be considered junk food. You see, in the South spinach must be "seasoned" correctly which usually involves the adding of about two tablespoons of bacon grease during the cooking process. In my path to recovery food has been a challenge. Right after surgery I was so afraid that I didn't want to eat period. I went for a full six month and had oatmeal for breakfast every day. At some point though I fell off the wagon. I remember well one day making sure that no one I knew was watching before I pulled into Wendy's for a double with french fries. I felt so guilty, but it tasted so good, and what was worse was that I didn't have a heart attach, not even a slight chest pain. What you eat can kill you but with a person with heart disease it's not like you have a food allergy. Nothing happens, in fact for me those bad foods, like deep fried catfish, taste just as good as they did before bypass surgery.  

As I have encountered people like me who have had serious issues with CAD I have seen three very different reactions to food. Some go radical and totally change everything about their diet. I have a friend who is a doctor that took this route. He also rides his bike to work every day. He has lost over 50 pounds and looks great. Others make some modifications to their diet, but find sticking to those lifestyle changes to be a constant challenge. Then there are many who just eat what they ate before they knew they had a problem. Some of these make a feeble effort to change their diet with the key being feeble.  From my own personal observation most people I have known who have had bypass surgery or angioplasty just don't eat right. 

The sad thing is that while genetics seems to play a real role in the development of heart disease so does diet. I have a strong family history of heart disease, but I also never met a fried food that I didn't love.  Eating the right kinds of food is a struggle for me, but I just cannot cease to struggle.