Not Your Daddy’s Heart Attack

LEAVE A COMMENT 2015 March 4

When she was 50 years old, Rosie O’Donnell left a medical appointment with her wife, who was undergoing treatment for cancer. As they left the hospital, the two of them helped lift a morbidly obese woman who’d become stuck in her car. Upon returning home with her wife, Rosie felt “as though a bear had grabbed both of my arms and ripped out the muscle.”

They hurt, but the pain wasn’t radiating into her chest,
neck, or jaw.

Rosie actually visited her therapist at first, thinking she was having a physical reaction to the emotional distress of helping the overweight woman. She’d identified with the woman because, as she says in “A Heartfelt Stand Up,” which aired on HBO in February, “I understand the shame of being overweight in America.” Rosie is not alone, since obesity is one of the top issues facing America. Her therapist sent her home, thinking that Rosie was having a panic attack. Instead, she was having a heart attack, and it almost killed her.

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How To Ensure Your Heart Health [Sponsored Post]

LEAVE A COMMENT 2014 September 23

We women spend lots of time paying attention to what our hearts tell us.

At least when it comes to matters of love and relationships, and which pair of shoes or necklace to buy. But we’d better start paying attention to the messages our hearts send us about matters of health. Because this powerful muscular organ, only the size of a fist, can incapacitate or even kill us in minutes.

And it does. Over 500,000 women die every year from heart disease, representing a little over half of all heart-related deaths in the United States; of these deaths, heart attacks claim the lives of 267,000 women. That’s six times greater than the number of women who die of breast cancer.

Read that last statement again: Six times more women die of heart attacks than breast cancer!

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The Handbag Essential That Could Save Your Life

LEAVE A COMMENT 2014 May 12

This post is a sponsored post on behalf of Bayer Healthcare, the makers of Bayer® Aspirin.

Our hearts need lots of things, like love and exercise. But they need something else that’s small enough to slip into our handbags: Aspirin.

Nearly 300,000 women in the U.S. suffer heart attacks every year,1 but most of us are woefully ill prepared for a sudden assault to this precious organ. Taking aspirin during a suspected heart attack and 30 days thereafter as directed by a doctor can help reduce our risk of death and lessen the damaging effects to our heart muscle.2 We should never leave home without it, yet most of us do. What’s worse, the majority of us wouldn’t even know if we were having an attack!

That’s why Bayer Healthcare, the makers of Bayer® Aspirin and WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, have launched year 2 of Handbags & Hearts, a national campaign that urges us to carry aspirin in our handbags, and to learn about the different signs and symptoms of women’s heart attacks.

Bet you didn’t know that women experience symptoms such as nausea and cold sweats during attacks.3 Make sure to learn more here.

Why You Should Visit HandbagsAndHearts.com

Throughout the month of May, Bayer Healthcare will donate to WomenHeart. “Like” a post on HandbagsAndHearts.com and Bayer® will donate $1. “Share” a post and Bayer® will give $2 and $1 for coupon redemption—up to $50,000.

You can also enter to win 1 of 31 luxe designer handbags during the month. Start talking and enter to win.

Suspect You’re
Having A Heart Attack?

Call 911 the moment you suspect a heart attack and take your Bayer® Aspirin, as directed by a doctor. Remember, this simple and swift act could help save your life.

A Word From A Doctor

“As a cardiologist, I see women everyday who are unclear of the steps to take when they suspect a heart attack,” said Tracy Stevens, M.D., FACC, Medical Director of the Saint Luke’s Mid American Heart Institute’s Muriel L. Kauffman Women’s Heart Center, Kansas City, and member of the WomenHeart Scientific Advisory Council. “I feel compelled to spread the word, as there are actions we can take to better prepare ourselves and ultimately save lives,” said Dr. Stevens.

If heart attack preparedness is important to you (not to mention handbags), it’s time to visit this important site.

1 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2014 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association — Table 18-1 http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/12/18/01.cir.0000441139.02102.80
2 The ISIS-2 collaborative group. Randomized trial of intravenous streptokinase, oral aspirin, both, or neither among 17,187 cases of suspected acute myocardial infarction: ISIS-2. Lancet 1988; ii: 349–60.
3 Bayer Aspirin Survey: Conducted by Wakefield Research. Demographic Report, 1,000 U.S. Women Ages 40+. April (2013).ISI-2, ASA Professional Label and AHA MI Guidelines

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