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Diet, exercise key in fighting heart disease

Women may have a harder time recognizing symptoms

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By Robin McMacken, Staff Writer 7:29 PM Saturday, January 29, 2011

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, and Charlene Sims knows all too well how easily she could have been another statistic.

Sims, 62, is eager to talk about cardiovascular disease in hopes of encouraging other women to adopt heart-healthy lifestyles and to learn their risk factors. Although heart disease also is the leading cause of death in men, its symptoms in women can be stealthier than the classic chest pain seen in male patients.

In February of 2008, Sims, the director of employee benefits and employee health at Premier Health Partners, recalls having discomfort through her shoulder and arms and difficulty with her hand grip.

“I wasn’t feeling too hot, and I thought I was just tired from the holidays ... I am a type-A personality,” said Sims who initially dismissed the pain.

As she was walking to her office one morning, she was so weak she had to drag her purse and work bag across the floor.

“I sat down at my desk and worked despite the chest pain,” Sims said, but ultimately knew to call her physician, who told her to go to the emergency room. She was admitted immediately to the Miami Valley Hospital Emergency Department. After three stents and four days in the hospital, Sims emerged grateful and committed to the lifestyle modifications she needed to make to prevent another heart event. She initially attended cardiac rehabilitation five times a week and now works out three times a week through the program. She has lost 25 pounds thanks to her lifestyle changes.

“I think we caught it in time,” she recalls, and attributes her awareness of heart disease to a 30-minute screening she had with Premier HeartWorks in July of 2007. The screening included a blood pressure reading, an electrocardiogram, body measurement and body mass index, and lab work, covering fasting lipid profile, fasting blood sugar, and C-reactive protein. Dr. Mukul Chandra, board member of the local American Heart Association and the director of preventive cardiology at Miami Valley Hospital, reviewed and interpreted her test results and a treatment and prevention program was tailored to her needs. Chandra would later become Sims’ cardiologist.

Although Sims did not have a family history of heart disease, she had other risk factors including diabetes and being overweight. The assessment indicated calcium buildup within the walls of her coronary arteries.

Pamela Nisevich Bede, a clinical dietitan who works at The Children’s Hospital of Dayton and owns a nutrition consulting company, said she is not surprised to hear stories like Sims’.

“Women tend to cater to other family members, and it’s common to hear the story of a neighbor who has had chest pains for two weeks but ignored the symptoms,” Nisevich Bede said.

The longer an attack or warning signs go unheeded, the more heart muscle can be irreparably damaged, according to Barb Emrick of the Cardiovascular Prevention Center at Kettering Health Network, which also offers cardiac-risk screenings and a Healthy Hearts for Women program.

Emrick warns that symptoms in women often differ from the crushing chest pain that commonly signals serious distress in a man’s heart. Unusual fatigue and sleeplessness also may be early warning signs of a heart attack in a woman.

“It’s important to recognize the symptoms in women because they can be atypical. It could be in the back or neck,” Emrick said. “Knowing risk factors and getting early treatment can reduce the rate of heart attack mortality.”

Chandra and Emrick agree the cardiac-risk assessments, as well as the AHA’s Go Red for Women campaign, have helped educate women of all ages.

“It’s not just a man’s disease, and we need to be alert to that and listen to our bodies and talk to our doctors about the risk factors,” Emrick said.

The good news?

“There are so many easy changes you can make to have a heart-healthy diet,” said Nisevich Bede, who also wrote the soon-to-be-released “Pocket Posh Dining Out Calorie Counter” (Andrews McMeel Publishing). “A good way to start is by simply adding more fiber to the diet by eating fruits and vegetables at every meal.”

Chandra and Nisevich Bede also said over-the-counter fish oil and flax seed capsules can help lower triglyceride levels.

As a way to help women lead a heart-healthy lifestyle, the AHA website offers a free, 12-week program, Go Red BetterU (www.goredforwomen.org/betteru), that offers nutrition and fitness advice, as well as weekly tips and an online journal for users to write about their successes and challenges.

Exercise is a vital component in heart-disease prevention.

“If you look at the recommendations for exercise, you want to be at least making the minimum,” Nisevich Bede said. The National College of Sports Medicine suggests 30 minutes of moderate cardiovascular activity five times a week, or 20 minutes of intense cardio activity three times a week, and eight to 10 strength-training exercises (eight to 12 repetitions of each) twice a week. “We have got to make fitness a priority, because people are so sedentary,” she added.

For Sims, her cardiac event was a milestone that triggered an about-face in many areas of her life. “The changes in my life have been exercise, diet control and knowing when to rest,” she said. “I’m better today at knowing when to stop for the day.”

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