Don’t bypass your heart

MICHELE MARR

Tomorrow is National Wear Red Day, a day to educate women and those

who love them that heart disease kills more women each year than any

other disease, including breast cancer.

This year, the day has greater meaning for me since, as many of

you who read this column regularly know, my mother is on the road to

recovery after having six coronary artery bypasses 11 weeks ago.

She has a long history of high cholesterol and had for sometime

complained of a fatigue that impinged on her quality of life.

But neither her primary care physician nor a cardiologist who saw

her and cleared her for a spine surgery ever suggested, or apparently

suspected, she had serious coronary artery disease. Had she not

needed the spine surgery, she could very well have died before it was

discovered.

In her case, her pre-op lung X-ray was abnormal, which caused her

doctor to order another more accurate scan. The scan showed that my

mother’s lung was fine, but the main artery of her heart showed signs

of calcification.

And that triggered an order for a Cardiolite stress test, which

she was unable to complete, triggering an order for an angiogram.

Even at that point, my mother’s cardiologist suspected that any

calcification he found would be able to be treated with angioplasty

or a stent. The look on his face when delivering the news of what the

angiogram revealed was all I needed to know he’d found the

unexpected.

My mother’s main heart artery was already 100% blocked, two others

were 90% or more blocked and another was significantly blocked.

Before her surgery was over, two more arteries were bypassed.

All this in a woman who had laid new sod in her backyard only a

week earlier.

My mother was lucky. My mother was blessed. She did not have a

heart attack and wind up in surgery as an emergency case.

Heart disease can permanently damage your heart and your life. For

her, it likely hasn’t. Her heart muscle is in A-1 shape, while of the

women in the United States who have a heart attack, two-thirds never

make a full recovery.

One in every three women in this country die of heart disease.

So this isn’t just about my mother; it’s about you (if you are a

woman) and about every woman you know.

National Wear Red Day isn’t a religious day of observance, I know,

but it’s not without spiritual aspects.

As the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute notes on its “The

Heart Truth” page, “Faith, health and healing have been intertwined

since ancient times.”

My Christian faith tradition regards the body as “the temple of

the Holy Spirit,” and not our own to neglect, abuse or pollute. St.

Paul wrote, “Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are

God’s.”

Defiling our body is not unlike vandalizing a church. The body and

the soul are interdependent and eternally entwined. The church

believes in a bodily resurrection and everlasting life.

Disciplining the body strengthens the soul; a fortified soul

better resists mortal temptations that can weaken and destroy the

body. The body and the soul are interdependent and eternally

entwined.

And while some faith traditions believe the body is ephemeral, few

reject the idea that in this life the body is connected to and

reliant on the soul. Nearly all religions recognize a body-soul, or

mind, connection.

Sunday, many congregations throughout the country will host a Red

Dress Sunday or Sabbath to remind everyone, but especially women,

“that our hearts are not only important spiritually, but physically

as well.”

The primary risk factors for heart disease -- high blood pressure,

high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, being overweight, physical

inactivity, a family history of early heart disease and age (55 or

older for women) -- will be discussed or handed out on fliers.

I couldn’t find a congregation in Huntington Beach participating

in Red Dress Sunday or Sabbath this year, but if you are interested

in organizing an event at your church or synagogue next year,

information to help can be found on this page of “The Heart Truth”

website: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/

hearttruth/material/talk.htm

A wealth of materials to help you keep your heart spiritually and

physically healthy can be read or ordered from Heart Truth Online:

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/ hearttruth/index.htm, including the

book, “A Healthy Heart Handbook for Women,” and “The Red Dress Pin,”

a red alert national symbol for women and heart disease awareness.

This week before Valentine’s Day, I wish you all healthy and happy

hearts, and offer you these words of wisdom from King Solomon:

“A merry heart makes medicine even better.”

-- PROVERBS 17:22

“He who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.”

-- PROVERBS 15:15

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She

can be reached at [email protected].