We all need an update on Women and Heart Disease:

Why do 87% of women feel that Heart Disease is not their major health risk, and why do women worry more about getting breast cancer than heart disease. The answers might surprise you.

According to a study by the American Heart Association, while half of the women interviewed said they knew that heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, surprisingly only 13% said it was their greatest personal health risk. Why? In another survey results suggest that women still worry more about getting breast cancer, even though heart disease kills six times as many women.  Why?
Answer:  Because breast cancer affects self-esteem and sexuality, while a diagnosis of heart disease does not.  Also, heart disease tends to occur at an older age, so the threat may not seem all that real to younger women. Most 50-year-old women know women their age who have had breast cancer but none who have had heart disease.

We’re way beyond the time when a woman’s worry over heart disease should only be centered on its threat to the men in her life.  We now know it’s not just a man’s problem.  Every year, coronary heart disease, the single biggest cause of death in the United States, claims women and men in equal numbers, totaling 500,000 lives.  More than 6.5 million women have some form of it.  Of those who survive a heart attack, 46% will be disabled by heart failure within six years.

Here’s The Difference Between Women And Men

Until recently, most of our ideas about heart disease in women came from studying it in men. But, medical scientists now realize it’s different in women.  A woman’s symptoms are frequently different from a man’s, and she’s much more likely than a man to die within a year of having a heart attack.  Women also don’t seem to fare as well as men do after taking clot-busting drugs or undergoing certain heart-related medical procedures.  Research is only now beginning to uncover the biological, medical, and social bases of these and other differences.  The hope is that new knowledge will lead to advances in tailoring prevention and treatment to women. Finally, this new research is identifying gender differences that may help fine-tune prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in women.  For example:

Metabolic syndrome. This is a group of health risks—large waist size, elevated blood pressure, glucose intolerance, low HDL (good) cholesterol, and high triglycerides—that increases the chance of developing heart disease.  The research suggests that, for women, metabolic syndrome is the most important risk factor for having a heart attack at an unusually early age.  In a study of patients undergoing bypass surgery, metabolic syndrome produced a greater risk for women than it did for men of dying within eight years.

Symptoms.  Many women don’t experience the crushing chest pain that is a classic symptom of a heat attack in men.  Some feel extremely tired or short of breath.   Other atypical symptoms include nausea and abdominal, neck, and shoulder pain.  In one study, women reported deep fatigue and disturbed sleep as much as a month or two before a heart attack.  During a heart attack, only about 13% of women reported chest pain; even then, they described it as pressure, aching, or tightness rather than pain.

Smoking.  Women who smoke are twice as likely to have a heart attack as male smokers. Women are also less likely to succeed in quitting and, once they do, are more likely to resume, and—because the menstrual cycle affects tobacco withdrawal symptoms—they may get inconsistent results with antismoking medications.

Blood lipids (fatty substances). Before menopause, a woman’s estrogen hormone helps protect her from heart disease by increasing HDL (good) cholesterol and decreasing LDL (bad) cholesterol.  After menopause, women have higher concentrations of total cholesterol than men do; and, also, elevated triglycerides are an especially powerful contributor to cardiovascular risk in women.

Diabetes. Diabetes increases the risk of heart disease in women more than it does in men, perhaps because women with diabetes more often have added risk factors, such as obesity, hypertension, and high cholesterol.  Although women usually develop heart disease about 10 years later than men, diabetes erases that advantage.  In women who have already had a heart attack, diabetes doubles the risk for a second heart attack.

Diagnosis and treatment.  Women have smaller and lighter coronary arteries than men do. This makes angioplasty and coronary bypass surgery more difficult to do, thereby reducing a woman’s chance of receiving a proper diagnosis and having a good outcome.  Women tend to have more complications following surgery; and they‘re twice as likely to continue having symptoms several years after coronary angioplasty.  (They’re usually older than men and have more chronic conditions at the time of their first coronary event.)  Women’s responses to standard exercise stress tests are also different from men’s, so it’s difficult to interpret the results.  However, these problems are diminishing thanks to advances in technology and better understanding of heart disease in women.

Here’s What We Can Do

Heart disease may start in childhood, develop silently over time, and arrive without warning as a heart attack, often a deadly one.  So we shouldn’t wait for symptoms to appear before taking proven steps to reduce our risk, no matter what our age.

Eat Healthfully. Studies have identified several crucial ingredients of a heart-healthy diet—a variety of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, nuts, poly- and monounsaturated fats, fatty fish, and limit your intake of trans fats.  (Basically, trans fat is made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil--a process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods containing these fats. Trans fat can be found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods, and other foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated oils.  A small amount of trans fat is found naturally, primarily in dairy products, some meat, and other animal-based foods.)

The Food and Drug Administration has required that saturated fat and dietary cholesterol be listed on food labels since 1993. Starting Jan.1, 2006, listing of trans fat  will be required as well. With trans fat added to the Nutrition Facts panel, you will know for the first time how much of all three--saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol--are in the foods you choose. Identifying saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol on the food label gives you information you need to make food choices that help reduce the risk of Heart Disease.

Exercise. Get 30 minutes per day of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking.  Fit even more activity into your daily life:  Take the stairs rather than the elevator, do yard work, park farther from your destination and walk.

Don’t smoke. Your chance of having a heart attack doubles if you smoke as few as one to four cigarettes per day.

Reduce stress and treat depression.  Your risk for heart disease increases if you’re depressed or feel chronically stressed.  Stress-reducing strategies include exercise, adequate sleep, relaxation techniques and meditation.

So let’s not wait any longer to take care of our heart health. As I have said many times, the cells in our body are what they are because of what we feed them….and this certainly includes the heart. Many of you are taking my Veggies & Fruit Concentrate “Food” already…and eating more vegetables and fruit is most important toward this goal…along with all the other things. Take care of yourself, no one can do it better.

My Dear Newsletter Friends,

I know many of you saw the grower/manufacturer of the Oleda® Aloe Vera Health Drink on the Dr. Phil TV Show last month. She is 85 years old – sharp as a tack – has the bone density of a woman in her 40’s, and owns the only company that grows Aloe Vera in greenhouses, organically, and also without insecticides, and with special nutrients to enhance its effectiveness. Because of her high energy and health, she’s able to be in her office every day at 7am, running the company – and she’s usually the last to leave. I called her once at 7:15am and she answered the phone herself. What a dynamite lady!

As a result of her appearance on the Dr. Phil TV Show, we became inundated with thousands of orders “overnight” …and the frenzy for aloe has not yet stopped. We love it but, as many of you are aware, our stock of the Oleda® Aloe Drink was depleted the first day after the Dr. Phil Show, and we had to backorder. 

Our stock has been replenished several times now and we’re almost back to normal.  So, if you were caught up in the wait, I thank you for your understanding and patience

If you would like to learn all about this aloe and why it’s so special, please read “The Aloe Vera Craze" in my tips on our Web site, written after the Dr Phil TV Show aired.  

I would like to make a special offer to you, in celebration of 2005 and for your continued beauty and good health throughout the year.  I have often said, “Old Age is obsolete, if you take care of yourself” – I have tried to live by that precept, and I would like to help you to do so, too. We've talked so much about my Oleda® VEGGIES & FRUIT Concentrate – a concentration of vegetables and fruit – that I take every day – so many of you are taking it – that it has become one of our top repeating sellers. Now, the increased awareness of the value of Aloe Vera is rapidly doing the same thing for the Oleda® Aloe Vera Health Drink, another element of my daily nutritional routine. (We also sell an Oleda® Aloe Vera Capsule). But, there are two additional supplements I take daily that I consider essential in maintaining my “youth” and vitality: Oleda® Super Age Enhancer Antioxidant Capsules and Oleda® Vitamin B-Complex

Oleda age 70 Photo by husband, Richard, New Year’s 2005

So Here’s My Offer:

	Oleda® Super Age-Enhancer Antioxidant Capsules.   Our cells need a balance of  vitamins, minerals, trace minerals and amino acids. This product provides an excellent nutritional value of them all.

	Oleda® Vitamin B-Complex.  Most people underestimate the nutritional benefits of the complete B-Complex Vitamins. There are 11 and they all work in harmony to support one another. I have taken all eleven B’s for 40 years.

You can learn more about these valuable supplements in our Web site, http://www.oleda.com/.

I wish you all the best of health and happiness throughout the year 2005.