No Heart Left Behind

Assess Your Risk for Heart Disease

Are you at risk for heart disease?

This week, your coach will lead you through an exercise to help you figure out your personal risk factors for heart disease.

Several characteristics increase a woman’s risk of heart disease. Some can be modified, treated or controlled, and some can't. The more risk factors you have, the greater your chance of developing heart disease.

Let's look at your risk factors

Have the Know Your Numbers worksheet that you completed available. By assessing which risk factors you have, you can identify the ones that you have control over and then work to reduce them.

Print out and complete the Assess Your Risk worksheet with your Coach. If you uncover three or more risk factors, schedule an appointment to discuss with your doctor.
Decide which modifiable risk factors you are able to change to reduce your risk for heart disease.
Continue to increase your activity level. Remember, your goal is to work up to 150 minutes per week, or 30 minutes, five or more days per week. Keep tracking your progress on your Activity Log.
Read the No Heart Left Behind brochure, which spells out the risk factors using the letters from "No Heart Left Behind."
Attend the COPP Stress Management Program (see schedule).

Weekly review question

Q: Which type of risk factors for heart disease are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, physical inactivity and stress?

A: These are modifiable risks—ones that we can control.

Jamie's story

Lea McElrath

Jamie McElrath Schwartz, M.D., and Taryn

Jamie McElrath Schwartz, M.D., age 42, grew up in Port Penn, Del. She currently works as a pediatric anesthesiologist at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. She was extremely close with her mother, Lea McElrath, who died suddenly of a heart attack in 1992 at the age of 41. At the time, Jamie was 23 years old and was enrolled in her second year of medical school at Thomas Jefferson University.

Lea McElrath was a beautiful woman and a wonderful mother, daughter, wife and friend. She was slender and athletic, and had recently participated in the M.S. Society’s “Bike to the Bay” fund-raising event. Outwardly, she appeared healthy.

She did, however, have risk factors for heart disease: Her father had died from a heart attack. She was a smoker. And she had endured the stress of losing her only son, Donnie, who was killed by a drunk driver at age 16.

Today, Jamie can look back 19 years ago and remember her mother complaining of indigestion, waking up at night with chest discomfort, jaw pain and fatigue. In retrospect, her symptoms were obvious. However, at the time, when information about women and heart disease wasn't commonly available, Jamie remembers telling her mother, “You’re too young to have heart disease.”

On the weekend she died, Jamie remembers her mother saying, “If I still feel this way on Monday, I'm going to call the doctor.”

Today, we know that heart disease isn’t just a man’s disease. It’s the leading cause of death among women. The symptoms for women are often different than men. Women need to learn about the symptoms and seek medical care at the very first sign of a problem. They should also assess their risk, and adopt heart-healthy lifestyle habits.

Today, Jamie is happily married and has a beautiful 6-year-old daughter, Taryn Lea, and 3-year old son, Max. Tragically, Jamie’s mother missed her graduation from medical school, her wedding to Jeff, and the birth of her children.

When Jamie heard about “No Heart Left Behind,” she was pleased. “A program like this could educate and save lives," Jamie said. "I often regret not pushing my mother to seek medical attention. I hope that others can learn from my experience and influence women to be more alert for signs of heart disease.”