Photo credit: John Rawlings, Vogue 1948You never thought you could feel this way, and so fast. Sure, over the past couple weeks you haven’t really been yourself, but here, in this moment, it suddenly hits you. Your palms start sweating, your breath comes more quickly as your heart begins to race, and your stomach seems to be doing flips. Then you lean forward, head spinning, terrified of what this might mean… because you could be having a heart attack.
It seems like something out a fairy tale, but those subtle symptoms are the number one killer of women. Why?
Women tend to delay longer than men in getting help for a possible heart attack. A large study of heart attack patients found that, on average, women waited 22 minutes longer than men did before going to the hospital. Many women delay because they don’t want to bother or worry others, especially iftheir symptoms turn out to be a false alarm. But when you’re facing something as serious as a possible heart attack, it is much better to be safe than sorry. If you have any symptoms of a possible heart attack that last up to 5 minutes, call 911 right away.
~from the National Institutes of Health The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women
We have a lot of figurative expressions that involve our hearts, pretty much all of which are in someway related to our love lives. However, our figurative heart is pretty useless if our literal heart isn't in good health.
When it comes to staying heart healthy, it's important to know the risk factors, and do what you can at every age to reduce your chances of being effected. This February, as we celebrate American Heart Month, take some time to think about your literal heart. Your figurative heart will love you for it.
This is part of The View from Venus series on women's health.
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