What you don't know can kill you

Kind of a scary title, I know. But it is the absolute truth. What I didn't know really did all most kill me.
On Thanksgiving 2009, I was 36 years old and I had a massive heart attack. I firmly believe that God saved me because I should have died. At the very least, I should have had permanent heart damage but I didn't. As scared as I was, I just trusted that God would take care of me and he did.
Heart disease is the number one killer of women and most of us didn't even know anything was wrong! Literally half of all heart attacks end in death. I'm going to tell you what my symptoms were and what to get checked, even if you don't have symptoms. Then I am going to do a series on what I have learned about nutrition. I really thought I was eating healthy; low fat, low sodium...turns out I was way off base and that lack of knowledge helped to lead me straight into a heart attack.
I had symptoms for a few months before my heart attack but I never realised they were warning signs. Walking uphill with my husband, I would get out of breathe fairly quickly, to the point that I would have to stop and take a rest. I was 50 pounds over weight and I just thought it was because I was so out of shape.
I would tire easily but I attributed that to the fact that I have fibromyalgia.
Sometimes at night, while I would be asleep, I would be woken with the feeling of rocks shooting through my heart. I would also get heartburn for no apparent reason. At the time, I had a high stress job plus a home and three children to take care of so I thought all of these symptoms were from stress.
The night that I had my heart attack, I was crazy stressed. I had worked all day then grocery shopped for last minute Thanksgiving items then I had pies to bake, dressing to make and a house to clean. I made pies until 2 a.m., when I was finished, I laid down and realised that my heart was racing but again, I thought it was stress.
Then the nausea hit and the pain that radiated from my jaw to the center of my back between my shoulder blades and down my left arm just past my elbow. I wasn't sure what was happening at first but then it felt like boulders were shooting through my heart. No more little rocks. These things were trying to break through!
I told my husband to take me to the hospital. I was having a heart attack. He took one look at me and I'll tell ya, I've never seen that man move so fast.
I concentrated on my breathing on the way to the hospital to try to slow my heart rate and I chewed a full strength aspirin.
The hospital staff didn't want to believe I was having a heart attack. Nothing showed on the EKG! It was only when they ran my cardiac enzymes ( a simple blood test) that they were surprised to see that I was indeed having a heart attack that needed immediate surgery. So they transferred me to a better equipped hospital and immediately put two stents in my right coronary artery.
I had a 90% blockage that was long enough to need two stents. The blockage had collapsed. THAT IS a heart attack. When you have a blockage that has grown large enough that it finally collapses and cuts off blood flow to the heart muscle. I also had two other blockages in different parts of my heart. One was 60% blocked. Another was 40% blocked. Those are reversible through diet and medication. They won't stent until a blockage reaches 75%.
As of last year, I have completely reversed the blockages. It can be done. It is a myth when people say that a blockage can't be reversed. I have had my heart thoroughly examined and it is finally clear.
This Thanksgiving will be the 4th year anniversary of my heart attack.  My outlook is good but I want your outlook to be good too.
Have your cholesterol checked. Bring up your HDL (good cholesterol) as much as possible and lower your LDL (Bad cholesterol) as much as possible. MAKE SURE your triglycerides are well below 150. Those are sugars in your blood that like to stick to artery walls. Mine were over 1100!
Start with knowing your numbers! The ones I have told you about are a good start. Exercise. At least 30 minutes a day. We'll do more on nutrition tomorrow. And ladies, get your blood work done even if you don't have a single symptom. Knowing is better than not knowing and finding out the hard way.