Is Your Heart Healthy?

A study recently found one in four people can recognize the five major warning signs of a heart attack. Here is another scary fact: you might just be one of the unfortunate three out of four.

I used to know an amazing woman named Cindy. She had big, bright eyes, was a mother of five and had a smile that could melt you no matter how horrible your day was going. She was always friendly and eager to help. This was somebody that I worked with and interacted with on a daily basis. One Saturday afternoon, I came in for overtime and found out that she had died. Cindy was dead and I would never get to see her again. Cindy was 43 years old when she died of a heart attack. I asked what happened, my body going numb from shock. Her friend said she had been taking a shower when she stepped out of the tub and fell to her knees. She vomited and collapsed on the floor, unconscious. She died shortly after. From what I am told, women don't have a high success rate when it comes to surviving heart attacks. Cindy was no exception to the rule. Her death scared the hell out of me until I heard that she had had signs that she ignored. When I learned that she just looked the other way, I was no longer scared, just sad. What people fail to recognize is that chest pain is not the only sign of an impending heart attack. Shortness of breath, pain or discomfort in the neck or jaw, arms or shoulder or feeling lightheaded/weak are all symptoms of a heart attack. Please do yourself a favor; pay attention to your body. It is so easy to ignore the little flags your body is sending up as a warning that something is wrong. Please, don't be that person every looks back on and says you were taken away to soon.