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Get A Checkup To Assess Your Heart Health
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Published: February 8, 2008
There's no one stereotype to describe a woman with heart disease. It affects women of all ages, races, sizes and shapes.
And each of the 8 million estimated American women living with heart disease today have a story to tell. Here are three Tampa women who hope their experiences will lead others to assess their own heart health.
Never Too Young To Be At Risk
Curiosity may have saved Kristin Passeth.
The professional event planner checked her blood pressure last year during a work-related trip to a Miami health fair. Was it really possible to determine heart disease risks in just a few minutes, she wondered.
The checkup was quick, but the results were devastating. The 37-year-old Tampa mother of two had such high pressure professionals at the fair encouraged her to get immediate help. Additional tests and a startling trip to a cardiologist helped her comprehend what was happening.
Passeth's heart had started to thicken, meaning the critical muscle was working harder and harder to get through the day. She was slowly inching toward a heart attack or stroke, her doctors told her.
"You can walk around and not know," she says.
A year later, Passeth is healthier. But she also takes daily medication and has eliminated all salt from her diet. She replaced a relaxed exercise schedule with a serious workout regimen.
Like many young women, Passeth didn't ever think about heart health. But the American Heart Association estimates that heart disease sends 40,000 women younger than 55 to hospitals each year. Of this group, 16,000 women die from heart disease each year, making it a leading killer, a 2007 heart association study revealed.
Finding out you're at risk isn't the end of the world, says Passeth, who continues to work full time and savor time with her husband and children, ages 7 and 3. She says her new focus has reversed some of the risks and likely added years back to her life.
"It's preventable and, in many cases, it's reversible."
Stay Heart Smart, Avoid Crisis
It didn't matter that Mindy Snyder grew up with a heart murmur. The news two years ago that she required open heart surgery still hit her like a brick.
The health nut and fitness junkie, who had spent her life trying to avoid illness, underwent the critical, complicated surgery to repair two holes in her heart in 2004. The procedure at St. Joseph's Hospital helped the now 51-year-old Tampa woman face her illness before it reached a critical stage.
"Though I had been told [about the murmur and that surgery might be necessary] all my life, you never want to believe it," says Snyder, cable television manager for the city of Tampa.
Snyder remembers being one of the youngest patients on the surgical wing, and one of very few who didn't identify with more common heart disease risk criteria, such as obesity or smoking. Recovery took six excruciating and difficult months.
Now, two years later, she says she's at 110 percent of her old self — as long as she eats right and works out nearly every day. And she encourages everyone she knows to get heart health checkups.
"It's incredible when your friends see things like this happen to you, and how their awareness changes," Snyder says.
The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease estimates that women make up 36 percent of all open heart surgeries in the United States each year. Many of those cases were influenced by preventable risk factors, such as high blood pressure, obesity and hypertension.
Snyder admits many women are afraid of knowing the truth about basic personal medical information. Whether it's heart health or breast cancer awareness, she says women should encourage friends, family and co-workers to remain healthy.
"Not everybody has a sister or mother out there to push them to do the right thing."
Treat Early Signs, Make the Most of Life
Margaret Norquist didn't have time for high blood pressure.
Her hectic career already required a steady stream of caffeine and chocolate. She couldn't worry about the high blood pressure score she received during a 15-minute assessment at a Sister to Sister Foundation luncheon a few months ago.
Norquist didn't take the results seriously until her boss at Ybor City's Roberts Communications and others encouraged her to see a doctor. She wouldn't believe she was one of the more than 36 million American women with high blood pressure.
"I needed a wake-up call basically to slow down," says Norquist, who is in her mid-40s. "I was just accepting that I was stressed all the time."
High blood pressure, a common but preventable heart disease risk factor, occurs with readings of more than 120 systolic pressure/80 diastolic pressure. Like many women, Norquist has been able to lower her blood pressure by altering her diet and exercise.
She's done well, and has phased out daily medication. Norquist hated cutting out her beloved coffee, but she admits she felt healthier about a week after cutting out the caffeine, artificial sweeteners and reducing salt, as her doctor suggested. She now checks her blood pressure weekly.
"I figure taking five minutes to find out my blood pressure is better than losing five years off the end of your life," she says.
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