Living with Heart Disease

Living with heart disease is much easier than I had imagined it would be in October of 2009 when I had my first heart attacks. It took some time getting used to, and some days still struggle with it. Heart disease is what claimed the lives of grandparents, aunts, and uncles on both sides of my family yet when it happened to me I was surprised and terrified.

I had watched my relatives get more ill and seem to waste away after their diagnosis. The light in their eyes rather went out as they struggled to eat bland food to survive but they had little energy to fight back against the disease that was ravaging their bodies. My paternal grandfather, who I was close to, had his first heart attack five years before he died from massive heart attacks. I know he changed his diet, but I thought it had done little good in the end.

He passed back in 1986, so medical research was not as advanced back then as it currently is. Food labels are also more developed and accurate these days, which can make a huge difference in the life of someone who is on a 'heart diet'.

The 'heart diet' is one, which is low in fat, salt, and cholesterol. While labels on food now contain this information, twenty years ago that information was not publicly known. A hand full of Lay's Classic potato chips has less fat, salt, and cholesterol than many of the frozen or canned entrees on the market today. It's very sad; I think that health food contains more of the bad ingredients than the so called 'junk foods.'

In the year since I began this heart diet, I quit eating canned foods and many prepared foods. I read food labels on everything I do still purchase but most of the time I cook from scratch to assure myself that the food I am eating is heart smart.

I used to love eating chicken noodle soup with saltines or tomato soup with grilled cheese for a quick lunch. Everything in that last sentence is loaded with salt, which is not good for me, and I have eaten neither in the past year. I make my own chicken noodle soup and use spices to flavor it. I use egg noodles which have no added salt and are cholesterol free and even my teenagers are eating it.

One additional benefit I have discovered by being on this 'heart diet' is the migraines, which plagued me so badly all of my life before have suddenly disappeared. I truly had no idea I was consuming so much salt on a daily basis, but cutting it out for my heart has had body wide effects.

Along with the diet comes activity and it is as necessary as the diet itself. I do not walk much but I do walk an hour three times a week in addition to climbing the steps in my house and doing other housework. My walk these days is to my part time job in the home health care field, not only does the job give me extra money a week, it also helps me to get the exercise and I get the chance to directly help another human who is not as healthy as I am. Helping her do the things she is unable to do improves my sense of well being.