Issue Date: January 25, 2006
Publisher: Mellanie True Hills, The Health & Productivity Revitalizer®

I hope that 2006 is already your best year yet.

If you made New Year's resolutions, have they truly impacted your life, or are they now just a distant memory? After the holidays, did your everyday life get in the way? Did you plan to lose weight, start a fitness program, or quit smoking?

It's hard to stick with large, audacious goals day-by-day. But it's not too late. Perhaps you can think in terms of Total Health, and take baby steps to get there. Each day, do something for your health, and by the end of the year, you will have made a major overall impact.

At lunch, you might choose veggies instead of potatoes, or broiled or baked instead of fried. Instead of burning gas looking for the closest parking spot, simply park and walk, getting a few more of those recommended 10,000 steps a day. If you're getting bogged down and frustrated working on a project, take time to get away and decompress by taking a walk or sitting silently to reflect. Or go to bed 10 minutes early. It's so much easier to think in terms of taking a few simple steps each day to improve your total health and well-being. 

We're coming up on February, which is National Heart Month. Cardiovascular disease—heart disease, stroke, etc.—is still the number one killer, not just of men, but of women, too.

There is good news—overall age-adjusted death rates from cardiovascular disease have declined over the past 30 years, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. From 1970 to 2002, premature deaths from heart disease dropped 52%, and from stroke, 63%. Thus, we're surviving cardiovascular disease, living longer, and dying at older ages. Improved treatment, due to medical research and technology, has lengthened our life spans. 

There is also bad news—these improved results are largely for men. We can successfully treat heart attacks and save lives, but women's subtle heart attack symptoms are often missed. We lose more women than men to heart disease and stroke in the US—one woman every minute, 1,400 every day, and almost half a million every year. And it's the same all around the globe.

Women's heart disease is still not diagnosed and treated as aggressively as men's. Three-fourths of doctors still don't know that we lose more women than men. 

Thus, February is also Go Red for Women. It's a time to raise awareness among women of our risk of heart disease and stroke. By wearing red, we can remind ourselves and our friends to take care our hearts.

With increasing awareness among women of our risk factors, symptoms, and prevention, and more aggressive treatment by our doctors, we will see the same kinds of survival rates for women as for men. Until that happens, one out of every two of us will die of heart disease or stroke.

The US Centers for Disease Control reports that if we eliminate all major forms of cardiovascular disease, overall life expectancy will rise by almost seven years.

Heart disease and stroke are almost totally preventable through simple lifestyle choices.

Live longer, by taking simple steps to create a healthier YOU. Won't you make these simple changes that can save your life?

Health and Medical Updates

Since February is Heart Month, these updates focus on the cardiovascular diseases, including heart disease and stroke. Half of us will die from CVD, so it impacts you!

1. Should You Take an Aspirin Every Day?

The latest reported research study into aspirin found that taking aspirin protects men from heart attacks, but not from stroke or death, and protects women from stroke, but not from heart attacks or death.

That would seem to make it a no-brainer to take aspirin, especially since it is so readily available over-the-counter, but it's not a no-brainer—aspirin increases your risk of stomach bleeding and other bleeding problems. It can be a problem when taken with other medications, especially blood thinners.

While many sources recommend that you carry an aspirin to treat yourself if you suspect that you're having a heart attack, this is really a conversation to have with your doctor, who can evaluate your medical situation and advise you. Even though aspirin is readily available, please don't self-medicate.

2. I'm Healthy, I'm Not at Risk, So Why Worry?  

Not so fast. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that a popular heart disease risk assessment, the Framingham Risk Estimate, misses at least 1/3 of women who are at risk. Does this also apply to men? We don't yet know.

The Sibling and Family Heart Study, a study of heart disease in families, studied women with no signs of heart disease, but who had a sibling who had been hospitalized with heart disease before age 60.

Using the Framingham Risk Estimate, 98 percent were at very low risk for future heart disease. When CT-scans were done on those women, one-third actually showed hardening and narrowing of the arteries that can lead to heart attacks.

Bottom line: Even if you think you're not at risk, you should still be taking steps to protect your health and your  heart. It's easier than you think, using the simple 5-step HEART program in A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life .

3. Are Weight and Stress Culprits for You?

More studies continue to come out linking heart attacks with being overweight and overstressed. Even if you think that you're fine because you're only a little overweight, and you have healthy blood pressure and healthy cholesterol, don't kid yourself—you could be at risk.

I didn't have the traditional risk factors (smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or family history); I was simply overweight and overstressed, and yet I almost died from them. Don't let it happen to you!

Do you know what constitutes being overweight or overstressed? Do you know what you can do about them, and how you can save your life or that of someone you love?

If not, chapters 7 and 11 of A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life will help you understand these problems, and chapters 16 and 18 will help you create your personal plan to overcome them.  

Is Mellanie Coming to Your City?

For National Heart Month, Mellanie will be speaking at Go Red for Women events as well as appearing on TV, radio, and in print. Check out where Mellanie will appear …

Please let us know if you see her or the book somewhere.

A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life is her story and a workbook designed to guide readers through the process of making permanent and life-saving changes. It is a winner of the Readers Preference Editor's Choice Award for 2005 and was listed in Publisher's Weekly as a nominee for the Quills Award Debut Author of the Year.

And best of all, for Heart Month, you can get it for Half Price. And to encourage you to share it with those you love, you can get as many additional copies as you'd like at this phenomenal Half Price special, and get Free US Shipping on these additional copies.

Buy it, or learn more...

Have a wonderful week. Stay healthy!

Mellanie

Mellanie True Hills
The Health & Productivity Revitalizer®...improving lives & productivity
Speaker and Author of A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life
Read the first two chapters

PPS. Invite Mellanie to speak to your company, organization, or association. Her most popular topic is Staying Healthy and Productive in a Speed-Obsessed, Deadline-Driven World. See some organizations for whom she has spoken or with whom she has worked at and view comments from attendees at her speeches. Executives say "Mellanie delivers solid business results", and audiences say, "You changed my life."

PPPS. You may reprint this, or any of my articles, in your publication, company newsletter, or on your intranet. Please include attribution, copyright, and contact information and please send us a copy. Thanks.

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