Making Good Health Your Heart’s Desire
We often think of heart problems as being a health issue for older, inactive men with high blood pressure, but it doesn’t discriminate. Shockingly, coronary heart disease kills more than twice as many women in the UK as breast cancer.
When you’re young, it’s easy to take your health for granted, but ladies we aren’t immune. Cardiovascular disease (CVD), also known as heart and circulatory disease, refers to conditions which involve narrowed or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain (angina) or stroke. These conditions can strike at any time, without warning, and can affect anybody, male or female, old or young. A quarter of all female deaths in the UK are from heart and circulatory disease.
The statistics are shocking, and it’s worrying that many women don’t realize CVD can happen to them. Heart and circulatory disease kills almost as many women as it does men in this country, and as women it’s vital we know how it can affect us and how we can protect ourselves as much as is in our control. The good news is that in many cases, CVD can be prevented.
This month the BHF is hosting an event series, aimed at raising awareness of CVD and getting to the heart of the matter of several topics which affect women’s health.
Risk factors include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, obesity and smoking. Women can be guilty of putting others needs first, whether it be family, friends or work commitments, and putting ourselves, and our health, second. This means that we can slip into unhealthy habits, or ignore signs when something feels wrong and put off seeking help and seeing a doctor. It’s important that we look after our bodies, both on the inside and out, and becoming heart health aware is a great starting point.
Living a healthy lifestyle can only do so much, and as always, genetics and biology play a part. If you have a history of heart of circulatory disease in your family i.e. your father, mother, brother or sister has, or had, coronary heart disease at a young age, your chances of developing it will rise. There are also a number of inherited heart conditions which can go undiagnosed and affect people from a young age.
It’s important that we look after our bodies, both on the inside and out, and becoming heart health aware is a great starting point.
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is the single biggest funder of cardiovascular research in the UK, and has helped halve the number of deaths from heart and circulatory disease in the UK over the past five decades.
The charity relies entirely on its supporters to raise millions of pounds to fund vital research into heart and circulatory disease, to help better understand how to prevent it and advancing treatments into the CVD which affects around seven million people living in the UK.
This month the BHF is hosting an event series, aimed at raising awareness of CVD and getting to the heart of the matter of several topics which affect women’s health. The unique week of events (July 17th – 21st) brings science and lifestyle together and comprises of panel discussions, intimate dinners and one-off workout and meditation sessions.
The event will address certain times in our lives where our bodies go through major changes, like during pregnancy, and aims to inform women to become more heart health aware about what we eat, how we live and the factors beyond our control.
The seven events, hosted in fabulous locations across London, will bring together celebrities and top professors for panel discussions, intimate dinners and one-off workout and meditation classes – perfect for anyone with a passion for science, health and wellbeing who really wants to get to the heart of the matter.
The central ‘Women and Heart Disease’ event, hosted by TV presenter Gaby Roslin, and experts in the medical and dietary fields, will look at the ways we can become more heart health aware. This panel will include DJ and radio presenter, Yinka Bokinni, 28, who will talk about her personal experience of CVD as a heart transplant patient and why she supports the BHF’s research.
The events promise to be engaging, fun and informative and are a great chance to meet those in the know and get the answers to the questions you want to ask. So why not get together with your friends, family or colleagues next week to support the BHF’s life saving research.
