The Importance of Women’s Heart Health & Staying Healthy with Self-Care  

Women are constantly making compromises in life, for their careers, family, friends, the list is endless. But what a woman should never compromise on is her health. Yet countless women, especially busy career women, ignore their health, and sometimes the early warning signs of heart disease, in the misguided belief that paying attention to their health “soon” will be good enough. So while women are busy smashing ceilings, taking over boardrooms, and starting new businesses by the thousands, there’s one area in which they are not winning: heart disease is still the number one killer of women, at a rate of one dying each minute!

Most small compromises made while building a business or nurturing a blossoming career are necessary and perfectly harmless in the grand scheme of things. Some of those self-abnegating choices, however, can morph into an avalanche of health woes.

Examples? Raise a hand if you’re a woman who has ever done any of the following:

• Given up much-needed sleep to finish a project for work
• Skipped the gym to stay late at the office for a meeting
• Grabbed a snack from the vending machine to avoid wasting time getting a proper meal
• Ignored her own needs to care for others
• Felt significant stress because of deadlines and a lack of work-life balance

The problem isn’t new; women have very often, throughout time, made the decision to put family, career (or both) ahead of the luxury of relaxation and restorative lulls of solitude. However, recent data demonstrates that the toll on women could be larger than many of us believe: in fact, each of these acts of “selfless self-denial” can, over time, negatively impact a woman’s cardiovascular health. What’s more, heart disease opens the door to a host of other potential complications such as diabetes and impaired cognitive function.

The good news? Women don’t have to sacrifice their health for their careers. They have the power to halt the silent killer, heart disease, in its tracks, through self-care that may also make them feel more buoyant and “present” (rather than harried) at work and home.

Recognize The Restorative Power of Slumber

Occasionally missing a couple hours of sleep is fine, but unhealthy sleep deprivation can feel like constant jet lag.  And women who routinely sleep six hours or fewer per night could be compromising their health.

The reason: sleeping less than the recommended 6-8 hours per night can negatively affect the body by impairing its ability to repair cells and fight infections. Less sleep can also lead to over-consumption of caffeine or sugar to combat sleepiness, and can contribute to a slower metabolism that steals the desire to exercise at the same time it causes weight gain. Both scenarios can impact heart health.

What’s a sleepy woman to do? Waking up later might not be an option, but she can certainly adjust her bedtime. Unfortunately, old habits die hard. A woman who has become used to staying awake until midnight might initially balk at the idea of falling asleep by 11 p.m., especially if that means leaving dirty dishes or laundry until the following day. So:

Self-Care Solution #1: If her normal habit includes folding laundry or emptying the dishwasher, followed by reading for thirty minutes before bed, she could listen instead to an audio book to relax while finishing the laundry and dishes — and still hit the hay a good half-hour earlier.

Self-Care Solution #2: Scheduling specific times for activities also helps keep the day on task, leaving fewer chores to catch up on in the evening. In fact, when there are only fifteen minutes allowed for a specific activity, it’s amazing how much can get done in that time!  So keeping work, household chores and family activities on track will encourage regular sleeping hours to stay on track as well.

Discover the Therapeutic Value of Delicious, Healthy Food

Grabbing a burger and fries on the go or scarfing down a doughnut while walking to your next meeting might seem like a small threat to your health, but the American Heart Association is encouraging women to think differently. In fact, while your hunger says, “Go for it!” your heart is begging, “No.”

So to help women Go Red, they recommend that women pay greater attention to their hunger cues and plan ahead so that healthier meals and snacks are within reach.  Eating on the go is part of the fabric of women’s work lives now, but junk food doesn’t have to be. Women should listen to their bodies more and strive for food balance. So:

Self-Care Solution #3: If breakfast was oatmeal or toast, grab a protein like a hard-boiled egg or Greek yogurt when hunger hits mid-morning. Also, learn to make healthier choices from the drive-through menu if you must make a quick stop for sustenance. Choosing chicken over beef, and grilled over fried, while cutting out fatty sauces and super-size portions, means that you are feeding yourself heart-healthy options that are still convenient and quick.

Relax to Recuperate  (or at Least to Stay Even-Keeled!)

Although there is no direct correlation between stress and heart disease, chronic stress releases adrenaline that can trigger reactions in the body, including rapid breathing, accelerated heart rate and spikes in blood pressure, which potentially could damage artery walls. In some women, stress also leads to an increased desire for fatty “comfort foods,” and a weakened immune system, headaches and stomach issues. So:

Self-Care Solution #4: Women can master techniques to manage stress and minimize its negative effects. Taking a walk for relaxation during a strained telephone call or practicing yoga in the office can both ease stress. If disorganization adds pressure to an already demanding work day, either make time to become more organized, or hire someone to help you eliminate the stressors in your office.

Take a Day for That Health Exam 

Woman are notorious for putting others’ needs ahead of their own. They stay late to help co-workers, attend to the needs of their parents, siblings, spouses and children, manage households, and shuttle everyone around. In the mix of daily activities, especially when they are also building a business or career, women often put themselves last on the list.

For women, one frightening consequence of placing oneself last can be the dismissal or complete overlooking of heart disease warning signs. Women will even forgo their own annual checkups while insisting that their children or other family members go to theirs. So:

Self-Care Solution #5: Women should schedule an annual physical with appropriate tests for their heart health. Additionally, they can monitor themselves for symptoms of heart attack or heart disease that might be mistaken for something else: nausea, back pain and light-headedness could be benign little inconveniences, or they could be signs of a heart attack in a woman.

Learn to Love the Wonders of a Workout

Most women know that aerobic exercise for thirty to sixty minutes per day is an ideal amount of exercise for heart health, yet many women don’t fit in that amount of time each week! Simply put, exercise helps the heart work more efficiently; it’s a muscle, after all. So:

Self-Care Solution #6: No more excuses! Exercise is such an important element of health that part of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign includes a new series of kitchen exercises to get women moving, even when they think they can’t sacrifice the time. Another option: women who want to schedule their exercise time should do so when they’re most likely to feel their best — before work for the “morning people,” walking stairs at lunch for those who feel most powerful at midday, or on the way home, in the evening, for those women who know they’ll never venture out again after getting home!

Burning the candle at both ends, for short stretches, is normal. Successful women can certainly sacrifice, within reason, a little sleep, relaxing leisure-time activities, and healthy meals in exchange for careers they can be proud of. However, the truth is, if women also learn the warning signs of heart attack and avoid behaviors that compromise their heart health, in the future there will be far more women in the C-suite, and far fewer women dying from heart disease.