From MSNBC Article 28 Days to a Healthier heart    This is a great report with simple things you can do each day

"Did you know that more than 41 million women in America have heart disease?  And that more women than men will die from it? 

In fact, it’s the leading health problem that kills women (not cancer—a common myth). But the good news is that just five lifestyle guidelines—moderate alcohol, a healthy diet, daily exercise, normal body weight, and not smoking—can cut your heart attack risk by a whopping 92%, according to a Swedish study of more than 24,000 women. Incorporating just the first two into your routine cuts your risk by more than half.

The 28 tips that follow are designed to help you get started. Try one a day for a month, and then stick with as many as you can for the long haul.

1.  Drink Green Tea & Hawthorn Berry Heart Tea
2.  Scan food labels for unhealthy fat.  No Canola oil.
3.  Cook like an Italian - Use cold pressed, extra-virgin oilve oil or cocunut oil
4.  Carve out time for sleep - You need 7 to 8 hours
5.  Fiber up your diet - Whole Wheat, Bran, Oats, Beans 25 to 35 g of fiber a day.
6.  Feast on fish - one serving of fish high in omega 3s a week could reduce risk 52% + Krill Oil
7.  Start your morning with juice - Orange and Grape juice are great choices
8.  Make Room for Veggies - make veggies 50% of your meals.  Juice veggies,
9.  Make nuts your go to snack  5 oz a week reduce risk by one third
10. Walk for 20 minutes a day - 2.5 hours a week could reduce risk by one third
11. Change your bread spread - pick one with cholesterol-lowering sterols
12. Stir in flaxseed - One of the most potent source of heart healthy omega 3 fats.
13. Start or end your day with stretching - 10 to 15 mins may keep artieries pliable
14. Unwind with a little wine - 1 to 3 oz reduces risk
15. Swap in soy - These plant proteins can help lower cholesterol.
16. Cook with Garlic - 300 mg 3 times daily reduces risk or take daily supplements with 10 mg allicin every morning.
17. Spice up your workout - Try something new and get 30 minutes of cardio 5 times per week
18. Stop faking it - Am I doing what I want to do?
19. Meditate for 5 minutes - mediation can reduce stress.
20. Get in touch with your spiritual side
21. Stay connected - Strong ties to family, friends and community.
22. Take vitamin D & Krill/Fish Oil - Too little can raise the risk peripheral artierial disease by 80%
23.  Do something sweet for your partner.
24.  Indulge with dark chocolate - Have 1/2 ounce daily.
25.  Steer clear of secondhand smoke
26.  Go Bananas - Potassium to help lower your blood pressure.
27.  Cut back on sugar - 74 g a day can elevate blood pressure.
28. Laugh at yourself - 300 people found that those with heart disease we 40% less likely to laugh.
29. Take Hawthorn Berries, Cayenne Pepper (Capsium ) & CoQ10 daily.
30.  Get a massage and relax.
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Hello friends. This letter came from my sister, Melissa. The mother-in-law in the paragraph below left behind my precious niece and hubby and their 3 beautiful children. She was a young woman and should have had the opportunity to see her grandchildren marry. Please share this. I love you, my friends. Marta

My daughter's mother-n-law died at a Merced, CA hospital because the moron doc didn't recognize her heart attack symptoms, which were, in fact, the classic men's symptoms; instead, he treated her for a tiny new-puppy bite on her arm and sent her home.  She died during that night.  There should have been an investigation, but the family was so shocked, I guess it just went on by...   Think how many more women die or suffer brain damage when symptoms are atypical, like those below, and go undiagnosed. Another thing to add to this is the value of an immediate IV magnesium infusion for MI symptoms, in the ER. If it's you and you are awake and cognizant, demand it; if you are accompanying a woman who seems to be having an MI, demand it on her behalf. It dramatically enhances the chances of surviving an acute myocardial infarct.
Please pass this on...

NURSE'S HEART ATTACK EXPERIENCE

I am an ER nurse and this is the best description of this event that I have ever heard.  Please read, pay attention, and send it on!

FEMALE HEART ATTACKS

I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best description I've ever read..
Women and heart attacks (Myocardial infarction).  Did you know that women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing heart attack..  you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor that we see in the movies.  Here is the story of one woman's experience with a heart attack.
'I had a heart attack at about 10:30PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on.  I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, 'A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up.

A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you've been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you've swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable.  You realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach.  This was my initial sensation--the only trouble was that I hadn't taken a bite of anything since about 5:00p.m.

After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR).

This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws.  'AHA!!  NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening -- we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven't we?  I said aloud to myself and the cat, Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack!

I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead.  I thought to myself, If this is a heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else...  but, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in a moment.

I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics...  I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws.  I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts.  She said she was sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in.   I unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don't remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the radiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance.  He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like 'Have you taken any medications?') but I couldn't make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side by side stints to hold open my right coronary artery. I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St. Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stints.
Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand. 1.  Be aware that something very different is happening in your body, not the usual men's symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act).  It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn't know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they'll feel better in the morning when they wake up... which doesn't happen.  My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you've not felt before.  It is better to have a 'false alarm' visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be!2.  Note that I said 'Call the Paramedics.'  And if you can take an aspirin.  Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER - you are a hazard to others on the road.Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what's happening with you instead of the road.

Do NOT call your doctor -- he doesn't know where you live and if it's at night you won't reach him anyway, and if it's daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics.  He doesn't carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved!  The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP.  Your Dr will be notified later. 3.  Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count.  Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it's unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure).  MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there.  Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep.  Let's be careful and be aware.  The more we know the better chance we could survive.
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this mail sends it to 10 people, you can be sure that we'll save  at least one life.
*Please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends (male & female) who you care about!*