Heart & Sole: The Betties to Run for Women’s Heart Health Awareness
The phone call came on what seemed to be an otherwise typical busy day in the hospital. “I’ve got a bit of an unusual case here, ” the emergency room physician began. “A 42 year-old woman was found down at the gym…” I had a fleeting thought of “jeez, I hope I don’t know her”, but refocused my attention on the rest of my colleague’s information. This certainly was an unusual case… He described her as a fit looking woman, who had no signs to suggest that she otherwise had a heart problem. However, we both had a high level of suspicion that she may have suffered a heart-related event. We made a quick plan over the phone, and I immediately headed to the emergency room to take a look at her. It was moments later that yes, indeed, our Jane Doe was someone that I knew. But not only was she someone that I knew… she was one of my closest friends. It is always difficult to see individuals arrive in such a critical state of illness. They have wires and tubes attached to their bodies. Though they are draped hastily in a hospital gown, there is no room for modesty, and some level of unintentional exposure is inevitable. There may be bruises or blood. They may be agitated and moving their limbs in awkward and uncoordinated ways. This was not the way my friend was supposed to look. Even though I knew she was not in a state to hear me, I promised her that we would sort this out. I swiftly placed a hollow tube into her artery and thread my way to the blood vessels supplying her heart. When the dye that illuminated her arteries clearly suggested the culprit, I must admit that I felt some level of shock: My friend had, indeed, experienced a heart attack. Recent studies suggest that we are becoming more aware of the fact that heart disease remains the number one killer of women in America. While one in 31 women dies from breast cancer each year, heart disease claims the lives of one in three. This is equivalent to roughly one death each minute. Unfortunately, studies also suggest that younger women are less aware of the importance of heart disease compared to older women. This is extremely important, as heart disease affects all ages, and raising awareness may save lives. Like my friend, heart disease can affect healthy, fit individuals who abide by good eating habits and have never smoked a cigarette. Yet there are other more subtle risk factors, such as knowing your family history and your blood cholesterol numbers, that are important to recognize. It is also important to understand that symptoms of heart disease may be atypical – and may be mistaken for anxiety, gut pain, or just general fatigue. We need to listen to our bodies. We need to listen to each other. We need to know our own risk factors, and we need to discuss these with our medical providers. It is with great relief, awe and gratitude that I can share my friend’s story and her happy ending. She is now home with her beautiful family, and her heart is beginning to heal. She has returned to work, and has started some light exercise with our cardiac rehabilitation program (which she described to me as “fun”). She continues to inspire us all, and has generously agreed to share her story with our community. This weekend, the USATF Cross Country National Championship running races will be held in Bend, Oregon, and our...
Read MoreDR. BETTIE: Run Naked and Tune In to Your Internal GPS
Welcome to Dr. Bettie’s Corner, your local expert in nutrition, fitness, and health! This is a bimonthly forum where we attempt to address Woman-focused topics of interest. We welcome your suggestions & questions! Please contact us with yours. Run Naked and Tune In to Your Internal GPS Earlier this fall I promised myself (and Coach G for accountability) that I would run the Turkey Day 5k “naked.” Don’t worry, no need to keep the kids inside (I left my streaking days behind in college) — I’m not talking about taking my clothes off, I’m talking about running sans GPS watch. Scary, right? How would I pace myself without technology? How would I do without knowing anything about my time? I’d heard some positive things about running without a GPS watch and was curious about trying it, but my type A personality is quite attached to glancing at my watch every so often while training and racing so I was not sure how I would do without it. As a frequent contributor to Runner’s World and similar running publications, coach Jenny Hadfield suggests that runners practice running without GPS devices so that we can tune into our own bodies and run at the pace our bodies are ready to run on any given day rather than becoming hyper focused on the number on the watch. While GPS watches are a valuable training tool, when overused they can prevent us from finding our internal GPS. Hadfield created three “effort-based” zones that we can try to visualize when running: Yellow Zone (Easy): You should be able to have a conversation and talk in full sentences. Orange Zone (Moderate): You should still be able to talk, but only in one or two word responses. Red Zone (Hard): You do not feel like talking when running in this zone. You need all of the oxygen you can get and do not want to use any of it for speaking. This is the anaerobic zone. Coach Hadfield recommends that when racing a 5k experienced runners warm up in the yellow zone and split the race evenly between the orange and red zone. So with that in mind, I put painters tape over my Bia GPS sports watch and prepared to give running naked a try. I pressed start on my watch, peeked under the tape to make sure it was running, put the tape down again and crossed over the start mat. I tried to find someone who seemed like he or she was running about my pace to pace myself off of, but that proved to be a difficult strategy. This might work in a longer race like a half or full marathon, but in a crowded turkey day 5k, it was just not possible. I was surrounded by all types of runners. Fast runners, slow runners, families running together, a runner in jeans, and runners in costume. I tried to just run in a straight line as best I could and find some sort of groove without doing too much weaving in and out of other people. The urge to peek underneath the tape was strongest during the first half mile or so. I kept looking down at my watch only to see blue painters tape with the message “Run Happy!” written on top. But how far had I gone? What was my average pace? My inquiring mind wanted to know! After glancing down at my wrist at least 27 times in the first 3 minutes of the race, my brain finally got the message that it was not going to get any...
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