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Red-dress event targets heart health for women
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IN THE RED: Dr. Kathie Nelson gives tips on how to reduce stress at Humility of Mary Health Partners Red Dress event. The event, which raises awareness about women and heart disease, was Sunday afternoon at Antone’s Banquet Center.
Stress reduction can help keep a heart healthy, a speaker advised.
STAFF REPORT
BOARDMAN — Responsibilities in a woman’s life can be overwhelming, with work and a house and family always needing attention.
But women should manage the stress that comes with those responsibilities because the stakes are high for their hearts, said Dr. Kathie Nelson, guest speaker at the Red Dress event sponsored by Humility of Mary Health Partners.
Nelson is an internist with a practice in Youngstown. She spoke to about 200 women, clad in red, who gathered at Antone’s Banquet Center on Market Street on Sunday for the luncheon. The annual event is meant to raise awareness about women and heart disease — the No. 1 killer of women in the United States, Nelson pointed out.
Several risk factors threaten women’s hearts, she said. Being overweight, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, a family medical history of heart disease, age and stress all can play a role, she said.
Some of those factors, like age and medical history, can’t be changed, she said.
But stress can be managed, and in doing so, many of the other risk factors can be as well, she said.
Stress has two ends, she said — a stressor, which is a stimulus or event that causes the stress, and the reaction to it.
“We do have a choice about how to respond,” she said.
Dr. Nelson said the body has a built-in mechanism for dealing with stress.
“It’s called the flight-or-fight response,” she said. Adrenaline and cortisol, the main stress hormone, are released, she said.
Adrenaline causes blood pressure to rise, she said. Blood is diverted from muscles to the brain.
Cortisol goes to the liver and is converted to glucose, she said, raising the body’s sugar levels.
Problems start when a body is under moderate stress all the time, she said.
Too much glucose can cause diabetes, and the adrenaline can cause hypertension.
Obesity, depression and insomnia are also side effects of stress, she said.
“What happens to habits and lifestyle?” she said. “We don’t exercise. We’re exhausted, and we don’t feel like it.”
Women could find themselves smoking or drinking more, she said.
“Stress is bad in and of itself, and it affects all the other risk factors, too,” she said.
Stress reduction is “huge”, she said, in preventing heart attacks. One study showed it was even more effective for heart patients than only routine care and exercise.
Dr. Nelson said the obvious way to reduce stress is to get rid of stressors, but that can be hard with external stressors such as work and relationships.
Internal stressors include unrealistic expectations, about housework, for example, or excessive worry about “what might happen.”
“A lot of people think they can’t change stress,” she said. “But little changes can help.”
Avoiding a person who’s a stressor is an example, she said. She also recommends healthy habits that include enough sleep, exercise, friends, art, hobbies and “wide-open space” — which is unscheduled time.
“Waking up on a Saturday morning with no agenda feels good, doesn’t it?” she said. “We have such a lack of that.”
Dr. Nelson also recommended controlling a mind that’s racing with thoughts of what needs to be done with “mindfulness.”
She described “mindfulness as being “in the moment.”
The technique involves focusing only on a task at hand. “Be with your baby and don’t think about anything else,” she said, such as the phone call five minutes ago.
The Red Dress audience practiced a few minutes of it, sitting quietly in their chairs. They focused on how their backs felt against the chairs and their breathing.
Nelson instructed them to “gently release thoughts and feelings.”
When practiced routinely for a half an hour a day, “mindfulness” can lower blood pressure, diminish chronic pain, relieve anxiety and depression, and is energizing, she said. She recommended going on the Internet to find out more about it.