Take Care of Your Heart
by Marcia Davis Taylor

Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States – one out of every three women will die from it. This may seem a harsh and unusual way to begin a conversation about love and passion, but the bottom line is that if you love yourself you will take good care of yourself, especially when it comes to matters of the heart.

The heart is more than a muscle that pumps life-giving blood through your body. It communicates with the brain and the rest of the body via communications pathways that originate in the heart, pass through the emotional memory portion of the brain, and extend to the part of the brain responsible for thinking and reasoning. According to researchers at the Institute of HeartMath, the heart plays a role in the functioning of human intelligence, emotions and personality.

The heart is a hormonal organ, responsible for producing oxytocin, often referred to as the love hormone.  Oxytocin facilitates the balancing of other hormones in the body and is known to decrease levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Oxytocin is said to play an important role in our emotional and social development, and influences how well the heart is functioning on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels.

Your emotions can affect the health of your heart. Depression, chronic stress and anger can contribute to heart disease. Depression and chronic stress increase the levels of cortisol, which in turn can damage the cardiovascular system, and other organs in the body. Researchers at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation report that high levels of anger and hostility are negatively linked to coronary artery disease, possibly because of increased heart rates and blood pressure.

Other factors that can contribute to the risk of heart disease are:

• high cholesterol

• sedentary lifestyle

• high blood pressure

• diabetes

• smoking

• obesity

• pour nutrition

Mother wisdom has taught us that the heart is the center of our very beings, where intuition, emotion, love, passion, gratitude and faith originate and abide. This place within us is where our self-love must also originate and abide. When God lives within us, we can truly love ourselves. And when we truly love ourselves, we can honor ourselves by cherishing and taking care of our body temples, starting with our hearts.  Here are some tips to get you started:

• Eat a low-fat, nutritionally balanced diet

• Eat five to nine servings of fruit and vegetables daily

• Participate in some form of daily movement

• Manage your stress

• Have a physical and learn your numbers (blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels, etc.)

• Quit smoking and breathe in the air around people who smoke

Friday, February 17 is National Women’s Heart Day, sponsored by Sister to Sister:  Everyone Has a Heart Foundation. Honor your heart and participate in a Sister to Sister activity in one of the 14 major cities across the United States.

For additional information about women and heart disease, visit the American Heart Association and Go Red For Women.

“The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.”  From The Beauty of a Woman, author unknown.

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Marcia Davis Taylor is a South Carolina-based certified self-care consultant and the owner of Life-Work Balance Resources. She is a married mom of three, and has been a working mom for 16 years. Her experiences in the field of maternal and child health, and as an independent consultant for Warm Spirit, a health and wellness company, have given Marcia a unique perspective on helping women achieve optimal levels of spiritual, mental and physical health.