Red honors Heart Health Awareness Month

This is the first of three packages of stories for National Heart Health Awareness Month.

Red roses.

Red wine.

Red lipstick.

A red dress.

Only one thing is missing for women this Valentine's season - and that is remembering the heart.

Not a heart-shaped box of chocolates and not the subject of Cupid's arrow. But this February, National Heart Health Awareness Month reminds all to wear red in honor of a woman and her most important asset of all - a healthy heart.

Friday, nearly 200 women gathered at the Long Beach, Wash., Elks Lodge, dressed in red - some from head to toe - to hear three medical panelists speak from the heart about the heart, at a women's-only heart healthy luncheon about heart disease and her.

Although heart disease is thought to be a man's disease, it is the leading cause of death in women, ages 65 and older. It is the third leading cause of death among women 25 to 44 years old, and the second leading cause of death among women 45 to 64.

Efforts have been made nationwide over the last decade to promote awareness of a woman's risk of heart disease. And that includes the last six years of the Women's Heart to Heart presentation, started by the Ocean Beach Hospital Auxillary.

"Listen to your heart" was this year's theme, co-sponsored by Ocean Beach Hospital Auxiliary and Gift Shop and Ocean Beach Hospital and Medical Clinics.

The event hosted three guests, Dr. Pam Law of Portland who spoke on the topic, "The natural path to a healthier heart;" Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner Gwen Meyer of the Naselle Clinic on the subject, "What is your blood pressure telling you?"; and Education Manager Geri Marcus of Ocean Beach Hospital in Ilwaco, who presented, "Staying alive: The importance of CPR."

The three speakers were divided by raffle drawings for gifts and a quilt.

Natural path

Law discussed the natural way to prevent and treat heart disease, including supplements of vitamin D and fish oil capsules.

"There are currently 42.7 million women living with some form of heart disease," Law said, after asking or a show of hands for those that take vitamin D and fish oil supplements. For those who had their hands raised - approximately 50 in the room - Law congratulated them. "You are one steps or two steps ahead of what modern medicine recommends today to prevent heart disease."

Law, whose father is the oncologist at Ocean Beach Hospital, discussed the newest studies on cholesterol and how it affects heart disease.

"Cholesterol is not the bad guy," she said.

More important factors, such as inflammation, are thought to put the heart at risk, she explained. Oxidized cholesterol and foam cells are major constituents of arterial plaques. They promote free radicals, a buzz word meaning atoms, molecules, or ions with unpaired electrons, that become highly chemically reactive. Free radicals are thought to occur through things like smoking and an unhealthy diet, and are thought to cause cancer, heart disease and stroke, she said.

Causes of inflammation can be diets high in oxidized fats, free radicals, high blood pressure, infections - such as the gum disease gingivitis - and the drop in estrogen from menopause. Vitamin D, she explained, helps to cut the inflammation, and balance the immune system.

Law recommends 2000 IU per day.

Fish oil  - high quality, refrigerated and in a dark glass bottle to prevent oxidization - should be consumed in 3000 mg doses per day. Fish oil is also good for the brain.

Other advice included cutting trans fats from the diet, reducing the intake of deep fried foods or foods cooked in oil that is heated on high, and avoiding vegetable oils that are generally rancid but colored and deodorized to disguise it.

The best fats come from butter, eggs, nuts, coconut oil and olive oil.

She also explained that antigens - foods people are sensitive or allergic to like gluten, potatoes and tomatoes - can promote inflammation.

B vitamins and folic acid should be added to the diet.

Although cholesterol is not thought to be the sole cause of heart disease and is not the cure-all, lowering it should still be considered. Natural ways to lower cholesterol include red yeast rice extract, inositol hexaniacinate - a healthy form of niacin - and garlic.

Staying alive

Marcus educated the crowd of the newest technique in CPR, a hands-only approach to something that had once required chest compressions, followed by tilting the person's head before breaths were administered.

She showed the audience a commercial for the American Heart Association that provides two steps to administering CPR - call 9-1-1, then push hard and fast in the center of the chest to the tune of the Bee Gee's hit, "Stayin' Alive."

Health care providers still use the traditional CPR way, which includes giving breaths to the patient, and bystanders can too if they are confident in what they are doing, Marcus said.

Confidence is key.

"Everybody in the hospital, no matter what your job, is trained in CPR," she said. "I'm here to say that if I can learn CPR, everyone can learn CPR."

Marcus brought a manikin that the hospital uses in their training to demonstrate. The manikin "talks" to the person administering CPR, instructing them to push harder or push faster, and provides encouragement like, "You're doing well."

Blood pressure

Women at the luncheon could have their blood sugar and blood pressure tested in the back of the room. Meyer spoke about the importance and effects of blood pressure to the group during her talk, "What's your blood pressure telling you?"

It's telling you, she said, you are in charge.

One in three adults have high blood pressure.

"Some people don't hear what their blood pressure is telling them because it's the silent killer," she said. "Some people think, ‘If I treat my blood pressure, if I take a pill every day, it will be fine. It's all good.' And maybe that is OK for a while. And then something happens, and the blood pressure starts to creep up again. And you have to revisit it and relook at it to find out why it is going up.

"People come in and they tell me, ‘Oh, it's just because you are wearing your white coat. That's why I have high blood pressure,'" she continued, to chuckles from the audience. "I don't believe that. I take off the coat, come back in, ‘How's it doing now? It's still high.'"

The patient often says it can't be high because they are taking high blood pressure medication. They also generally say they have a lack of symptoms so can't be suffering from hypertension.

"It doesn't always happen," Meyer said of the telling signs such as a headache. "It's the same way for heart disease in women. All of those symptoms that you look for that are supposed to clue you might not be there."

The ABCS are the guidelines folks should follow, Meyer said : A - aspirin; B - blood pressure; C - cholesterol; S - stop smoking.

Some of the ABCS don't always work for everyone. Some people may not be able to take aspirin. Others have different goals for their blood pressure, depending on their age, genetics or previous coronary event.

"Talk to your provider about who you are," she said. "You're all unique and individual. And your health needs are unique and individual."

Checking your blood pressure can be useful, Meyer said, warning against finger-reading machines and the wrist cuffs. But checking your blood pressure yourself will not give you an accurate reading if you have aortal fibrillations, or an irregular heart beat.

Meyer then spoke about marijuana and alcohol use and how it can affect the heart.

"When you first smoke (marijuana) your blood pressure drops," she said. But again to laughs from the audience, she said, "I know because I'm a nurse and I save lives that there is a direct correlation between how hard your heart pumps and how fast it goes. It's called a cardiac output. And so you can have a slow heartbeat, but a good one like an athlete . ... you can have low pulse rates but good blood pressures. So there's a correlation here between blood pressure and how hard is it pumping and how fast your pulse is going."

Problems with marijuana

Smoking marijuana, however, causes the pulse rate to go up to compensate for the lower blood pressure to provide blood to the rest of the body, she explained. Some people have had immediate heart attacks after "a reefer day," she added, encouraging women at the luncheon to not smoke marijuana for blood pressure problems.

She encouraged women to lay off the alcohol, with no more than one alcoholic beverage a day. (And it doesn't mean you can have two if you missed Tuesday, she joked.)

Next: Installments of this series are planned Friday and Feb. 15.