Go Red For Women Australia – My Heart Health Check
There’s a sentence that certainly grabbed my attention.
I’ve got very personal reasons for wanting to avoid a heart attack…. Four of them, teenage boys aged 16, 13 and my dear boy/girl twins aged seven.
The kids are so young, and I’m so….. not.
I had the twins aged 42, and I’ll be 50 next year. We joke that I’m old enough to be their granny, but of course, it’s entirely serious.
These children need me alive and healthy for as long as is possible. And I so want to be a granny to their children.
In lots of ways having children in my 40’s was a really bad idea. But here we all are, and staying healthy for them has been a great big motivator in my endeavours to eat well and stay fit over the past few years.
Exercise has also made my day to day life much more enjoyable, and helped my mental health too.
But back to the heart disease and heart attack story.
When the Heart Foundation put out a call looking for bloggers to have a Heart Health Check with their GP and report back on it, I hit that ‘reply’ button straight away.
The Heart Foundation’s Go Red For Women campaign is important and I’m proud to be a part of it.
The statistics are pretty well known now: heart disease is the number 1 killer of women. More women die of heart disease than of breast cancer, three times more women in fact.
But I’d done nothing to actually check what my heart health looked like.
And every time I slathered butter on a piece of warm bread from the bread machine, I’d think: ‘Must get my cholesterol checked.’
So I made an appointment with the doctor, and had a good look at the Heart Foundation website.
Here are some of the risk factors, taken from the website.
Non-modifiable risk factors
- increasing age
-
having family history of heart disease
Well, my age seems to be increasing as fast as anyone elses. And yes, we have a family history. My grandpa was the first heart attack I ever heard of.
He wasn’t feeling well one day so he thought he’d get on his bike and ride up Arthur’s Seat (the big hill in Edinburgh). In fact he was showing early symptoms and he fell off his bike near the top of Arthur’s Seat and passers by called an ambulance.
He did recover well and enjoyed cycling for many years afterwards.
Modifiable risk factors
- smoking – both active smoking and being exposed to second-hand smoke
- high blood cholesterol
- high blood pressure
- diabetes
- being physically inactive
- being overweight
- depression, social isolation and lack of quality support
Here’s how I stack up with these:
Smoking: smoked a lot for 10 years and gave up when I was 28. Still one of the hardest things I’ve ever, ever done.
Cholesterol – not sure
Blood pressure – generally OK
Diabetes – no
Being physically inactive – I’m fairly active, but not great at the moment. Bare minimum now would be a 20 – 30 minute walk/jog every second day. I’m missing my ocean swimming but too much of a softy to swim in the winter. Need to get into a pool.
But on the upside, I don’t sit down very much of the day, and I know that’s a good thing.
Being overweight – yes, I am strictly overweight for my height, I weigh about 72 kilos, and the uppermost weight int he healthy weight range for my height is 71 kilos.
But…. I’m a comfy and curvy size 12 and am adamantly NOT trying to lose any more weight.
Partly that’s just to be a rebel, and also because I’m so gobsmacked to be a size 12 as I haven’t been since I was about 13 years old, so it’s novel.
But who wants to be stick thin? Not me, I want my body to be strong and liveable.
Depression, social isolation and lack of quality support – hmmm… I have experienced depression, and have no family here. I do find my family life exceptionally stressful at times. To be discussed.
The Healthy Heart Check With My GP
I have a very lovely GP whom I trust and respect. She’s about my age, a working mum and she’s looked after me well, most recently when I slowly stopped taking the anti depressant medication Cipramil.
My GP ran through all the areas I had expected to cover after downloading and printing off the Heart Foundation’s pamphlet: Questions To Ask Your GP.
First up were the two biggies nicotine and alcohol. Having not smoked for over 20 years, I am clear for the first. And I stopped drinking alcohol late last year, which she said was also a great big positive for heart health.
Blood pressure: today’s reading was 123/81 which my GP said was fine. A previous result a few months ago had been 100/70.
Cholesterol: I have a test made out and ready to do tomorrow morning
Exercise: now again my GP says this is really important, and that I am doing enough, with my few sweaty 30 minutes of walking/jogging a week. But I did also let her know that I’ll be starting weights once a week again soon and for sure next summer I will be doing ocean swimming.
Weight: My GP says thatI am fine, my BMI is 25 which is good, and although it’d be great to lose a kilo, it’s not a big issue. The exercise though is vital to be kept up.
My GP had a table from the Heart Foundation and she showed me where I sit, which is well within the green for OK section, with a less than 5% chance of having a heart problem at this stage.
Which suits me fine!
So I have blood tests to do, and, my GP says, even if my cholesterol is a bit raised, that still might not push me too high up the risk ladder.
I’ll be eating less butter if I do though, and will report back.
Healthy Heart Check – What It Means For Me
Doing this check with my doctor was immensely reassuring for me. The main message I came away with was:
Keep up the exercise!
In the long term, exercise will keep me fit and healthy, and more likely to enjoy an active old age.
The other key messages for me were:
Eat well and maintain a healthy (and happy) body
Don’t smoke (or drink to excess)
Manage blood pressure well
Look after my mental health – had a good old chat to the doc about how I’m going.
Have You Had A Healthy Heart Check?
If you’re getting older (and who isn’t?) then it’s definitely a wise thing to consider. Certainly by the time you are kicking 50, it’s a good idea to have learned all you can about your heart and your own health risks.
It’s easy to gain the knowledge you need:
To read more about risk factors for heart disease, click here.
To print a list of questions to discuss with your doctor, click here.
Connect with the Heart Foundation:
Website
Right then, I am off to take some exercise!
Have you exercised for the sake of your heart today?
This post was sponsored by the Heart Foundation who covered the cost of the doctor’s appointment and tests, plus a bit extra… to be spent on exercise clothes!