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Caring for Our Beautiful Hearts: A Women's Heart Health Discussion
30 Plays4 months ago
Welcome to the Magdalene Journal Podcast, where we explore wellness, creativity, and inspiration. In this episode, Jo of "Beauty and Heart with Jo" joins us for a wellness discussion focused on women’s heart health. Jo shares the story of her personal heart health journey and how this experience led her to become a WomenHeart Champion: an advocate for women living with heart disease. You'll learn why heart health education matters for everyone, how women’s symptoms can present differently, and how stress reduction, self-advocacy, and compassionate self-care can all play a powerful role in prevention and healing.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
WomenHeart links shared here with much gratitude for the essential work of the WomenHeart community and their ongoing advocacy for women’s heart health.
WomenHeart: https://www.womenheart.org
SisterMatch Program: https://www.womenheart.org/sistermatch/
Follow Jo on social media: Beauty and Heart with Jo
https://www.instagram.com/beauty_and_heart_with_jo
Discover more about Magdalene Journal at https://magdalenejournal.com/
Transcript available here:
https://magdalenejournal.com/2026/01/10/caring-for-our-beautiful-hearts-a-womens-heart-health-discussion-podcast/
Produced by Magdalene Journal and Beauty and Heart with Jo, with additional production support from Mind Body Voice Productions. (https://mindbodyvoiceproductions.com/)
This episode is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The views expressed are not a substitute for professional medical care. Please consult your physician or qualified healthcare provider before making any health-related decisions.
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Transcript
Introduction to Magdalene Journal
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi everyone. Please note that this episode is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute health or medical advice. Neither I nor my guests are medical doctors and we are not teaching you how to manage your health. Please consult your physician or qualified health care provider before making any medical or health related decisions.
Jo's Journey into Women's Heart Health
00:00:19
Speaker
Welcome to the Magdalene Journal podcast. So as part of Magdalene Journal's focus on wellness, today we're talking about women's heart health and caring for our bodies. So today i'm going to be speaking with someone who is very special to me, Jo of Beauty and Heart with Jo. She's a women heart champion, a women's heart health advocate, and she's also my aunt, which makes this conversation extra meaningful. Jo, thank you so much for being here with me today. Thank you, Erica. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really happy to be here. Oh, I'm so happy you're here too.
00:00:52
Speaker
So if if you could tell us a little bit more about your advocacy in this area and what that means to you, especially heart health specific to women. Yes, Women Heart is the national coalition for women living with or at risk of heart disease.
00:01:09
Speaker
It has been around for over 20 years and as Women Heart Champion, as you mentioned, all Women Heart Champions are women living with heart disease. We've all gone through an extensive training through the Mayo Clinic that helps us learn how to share our stories. And the three areas that I often think of is S-E-A-C. So we support, educate, and advocate for women.
00:01:38
Speaker
And the three different areas support is where we have women heart support groups throughout the whole country. There's over 1,000 women heart champions right now.
00:01:50
Speaker
So we support, we go into hospitals when women have experienced a heart attack or surgery and we offer them comfort and support. We also offer red bags of courage, which are just filled with so much great information and where and how to get support.
00:02:09
Speaker
And then education is where we go out into the neighborhoods and offer workshops and speak at different seminars and it's all volunteer work, and then advocacy I'm very passionate about, which is where we go and advocate for women's heart health and needs that are specific for women's health.
Understanding SCAD Heart Attacks
00:02:34
Speaker
And so that wraps it up. Once a year, we go to Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C., which is so exciting and really speak to members of Congress and try to get support for more funding specific to women's health.
00:02:51
Speaker
That's incredible. It touches so many levels of connection with women, where, as you were saying, whether it's one-to-one with women who are in the hospital going through such an overwhelming experience, and then reaching out on that advocacy level, reaching lawmakers and decision makers really support us in this area. That's incredible. And I wanted to also ask you as well if you'd like to kind of touch on some of your own personal experience with heart disease and and you know how that led you into this area of advocacy.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yes, well, learning to live with heart disease was the first part of my journey and then heart disease gave me a purpose of how to help others and share this information and WomenHeart gave me the platform in which to share everything that I've learned on this journey. my My own story came about almost eight years ago now and I thought of myself as the pitcher of health until I was at
00:04:05
Speaker
my nephew's wedding, your cousin's wedding, and um just didn't feel right the whole day. And the first thought, oh, maybe it's nerves, maybe I'm excited, maybe this or that.
00:04:18
Speaker
But made it through the whole wedding, made it through the day. Like most women didn't want to ruin the celebration. Did not go to the hospital until the following day. And after going through all the stereotypical things that women tend to do, putting things off, making the first big mistake of driving myself to the hospital, et cetera, et cetera, was diagnosed with a SCAD heart attack.
00:04:47
Speaker
SCAD stands for Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. Now that's a mouthful. blow um And I've learned an awful lot. And it's a type of heart attack that primarily does affect women and usually younger women.
Recognizing Women's Heart Attack Symptoms
00:05:04
Speaker
So that made me feel a little better. At least I was in with the young women. At that time, I was 55 years old.
00:05:11
Speaker
and After being misdiagnosed a few times and having problems with the wrong dosage of medications, um I finally got it straightened out. And now I'm happy to say I'm not only living with heart disease, but I would say thriving.
00:05:28
Speaker
That's excellent. That is wonderful to hear. And I definitely just want to say I'm so grateful that you're doing well and that you're thriving because it is a very scary and very concerning thing to go through for sure. And on and on that note too, as you were describing, you know, being at this wedding, this family wedding,
00:05:46
Speaker
And having these feelings come over to you, that really made me think about how women's symptoms do tend to manifest differently from men's symptoms. And can you speak to that a little bit of what women in particular should look out for?
00:06:00
Speaker
Yes, definitely. In my own case, it wasn't that Hollywood crushing pain that you you see you know clenching your chest. I just had a feeling of discomfort, almost like an impending sense of doom, a tightness and a pressure in my chest. And then a shortness of breath began to chicken And that's when I thought, hmm, I better get this taken care of. So I caution you women not to try to think it away. Know your body, you know when something's not right. So trust in your instincts and get things checked out.
00:06:39
Speaker
Absolutely. Yes, I think that's a huge part of it, learning and researching about how symptoms can manifest differently. And also what you spoke to earlier about something that I think a lot of women are socialized to do of like, well, I don't want to be a bother, it'll be fine. You know, we'll put this to the side. And would you say that is a huge part of our wellness too, of being self-aware and speaking up and like you said, following our intuition if something doesn't feel right?
Managing Stress for Heart Health
00:07:08
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. So many times we just don't want don't want to make a scene, don't want to look foolish and there's being told, you know, you're probably just stressed or you're probably have anxiety. If you know your body, you have to be persistent until you get the diagnosis that is correct.
00:07:31
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. And as kind of as you were mentioning before, too, about how you said something to the effect of you you felt like you're the picture of health and everything is fine. What would you say to some women who do feel similarly like, well, i you know, I think I'm i'm doing great. I haven't you know come across any issues. How and why should we be aware and proactive about our heart health? Because so many variables are involved, in my case, I have, or we have, I'm sorry to tell you, this family history.
00:08:05
Speaker
wasn't aware of how strong it was throughout our family, family history of heart disease, particularly on women's sides. And also stress, SCAD in my case, a stress-induced problem.
00:08:22
Speaker
And I always thought, oh, um so yeah everything's cool, everything's fine, but stress will manifest itself someplace. And I think of stress as it can find your Achilles heel your weak spot.
00:08:36
Speaker
And in my case, it was my my heart. So through all of this diagnosis, I found I also have coronary spasms. also known asing metals angina is a form of angina or chest pain that can come on at rest.
00:08:54
Speaker
A lot of people think of angina as when you're out shoveling the snow and you get that heart attack. Right, right. Exactly. What I'm prone to is that happens at rest.
00:09:05
Speaker
So what can induce, cause that is stressful situations. And although you might rally during the stressful situation, it sometimes shows itself after the fact.
00:09:18
Speaker
So please, my message to everyone out there is two words I hope we don't never use together is just stress. So often we say, Oh, she's just stressed. Just is a word that disqualifies what you're really feeling. And stress can be a killer. Manage your stress. I think that's such an important point of a word like just where it's minimizing. And I think we do in society tend to minimize our stress. And try to push harder and value this idea of pushing ourselves to burnout sometimes and it's it's not worth it and we do not want to go there on ah a personal level too i also am really grateful for your openness and transparency because i just think knowing is better than being uninformed and opening that door Like you were saying, with our family history, I can be more proactive and anyone listening to have that openness about what we're going through so that we can help
Heart Disease Prevention Tips
00:10:18
Speaker
each other. It's so, so important. In a lot of the presentations that I do, I share a bit of information that sounds a little frightening, but its the fact is, heart disease is the number one killer of women and men in America. The number one killer. But the good news, when you hear that, it's like, oh, that's frightening. But the good news is it's 80% preventable. That's huge, 80%. That is incredible. Would you say some of the ways of prevention, you definitely mentioned the reduction of stress, which is very essential. Are there other areas in terms of, I guess, like what we're consuming, like food or, you know, any other areas of our life that contribute to that? Definitely. And although the family history that we have no control over, but the other like 80%, whether it be finding a diet that's best for you. And that's a realistic diet. Not that we're going to New Year's resolution. Let's do everything at once, but a realistic lifestyle changes that whether it's just walking a few minutes each day and each day increasing your healthy eating habits and finding something that you enjoy doing and you can stick with it And then also i was wondering too, because the stress being such a huge part of it in your learnings and research and advocatevocacy advocacy work, are there some specific tips you have so that we can live a more stress-free lifestyle?
00:11:45
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. So many things. And it's really honestly been process learning how to minimize stress, manage stress, and most importantly, knowing your triggers. and being respectful to your triggers and honoring yourself and saying, if this is an overwhelming situation for me, I have to manage walking away from it and what I can do in face of it and not feeling, this is a big one, not feeling that you have to explain yourself to everyone else. You have to be responsible for your own wellness and self-care. Absolutely. Much easier said than done. but
00:12:23
Speaker
Exactly. no that's so important. And I think that kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier, especially in regards to women and how we tend to express ourselves. We tend to not want to be the one to kind of speak up for ourselves always or want to intrude or think we're making a bother or a fuss. And I think when it comes to even interpersonal moments, if we're in a situation, even if it's with family, things can be stressful. If it's a stressful conversation or a moment, you just have to take a minute, right? And just give yourself that space. Yes, I had after the hot heart attack, I had a wonderful cardiac counselor because it was so overwhelming at first. Like, honestly, I could count the amount of times I've even had a cold. oh wow So to suddenly be faced with this and then hear, oh, you've just had a scat heart attack. You have angina. Oh, and just for a little extra flavor and aortic aneurysm. I was like, holy, holy, this is a lot of news. Yeah. And then once I found this fabulous Cardiac counselor, which through many insurance companies, there's a lot of different avenues of support that you can get if you just know about them. And this one counselor told me every day look at your hand, like a little, make a little cup with your hand and think of it as that's how much energy your hand you're filled with for the day. And if you choose to waste your energy on stressful situations or things you can't control, You're going to be down for the count for the rest of the day. So I think of that often when I think of how to use my energy wisely each day. That is that is very wise. And it's wonderful to have a visual that you can relate to. And even a little gesture. Like I would imagine even if you're just going about your day to to kind of make that little gesture. you know, hand cup movement and just remind yourself.
00:14:13
Speaker
That's excellent. There are so many resources that we have at hand to educate ourselves and be aware. Like
Women Heart Resources
00:14:22
Speaker
you were mentioning, possibly reaching out to your medical provider or seeing if you have some kind of a counselor that can help you. What are some other resources that we can go to to learn more and educate ourselves? Well, with the part of with your cardiologist or whoever primary care doctor you're speaking with, I strongly suggest going to the appointment well prepared with a list of your questions. And i always actually leave a space for the answers because once you get into that office setting, you know, we get the white coat syndrome and get nervous and anxious. So make your ask your questions, be sure that you take the time to get the right answer to stay on target and find a doctor that you're comfortable with that you have a rapport with.
00:15:09
Speaker
Because I think once you have a good partnership with your physician, then you can work as a team. And then to me, in my case, i felt more empowered to manage the things that I can control knowing that my cardiologist was helping with the things that he was empowered to control. Absolutely. That is so excellent, especially that reminder of having having the space for the answers. I think when we do go to our appointments, it can be so overwhelming and so much to focus on. so and And even something like making sure you have your pen and your notepad or taking notes on your phone or whatever note taking arena is easiest for you to remember to do that. Yes. Very often a lot of other women are champions I've communicated with say they actually ask the physician if it's okay that they record the conversation. Absolutely. that That sounds wonderful. Then you take away that extra stress of, okay, let me make sure I'm writing this all down and getting it all in the moment. And then are there any any websites? Definitely, I would say I'm sure the Women Heart would have a lot of good resources in terms of going there and what type of, I guess, online or social references can we look at too? Women heart it's women heart one word, womenheart.org. And through Women Heart, they can lead you to so many other organizations.
00:16:31
Speaker
And at Women Heart, you can find champions in every state throughout the country that can come and speak at different seminars and courses. They have Women Heart YouTube TV, which has great information of different clinicians that have come to speak with us yes so there there's so much information out there. So that would be my number one resource to get started with. And we even have a program called Sister Match.
00:17:00
Speaker
As a woman living with coronary disease or any type of heart disease, you can find a sister match with either the same demographics, the same type of disease, the same age, whatever your uncomfortable connection would be. And then you have actually somebody that's had the same lived experience. It's extremely helpful.
Importance of Knowing Health Metrics
00:17:20
Speaker
Similar to what you were mentioning earlier with the aspect of going to women in a hospital who've recently had this experience and and then the follow-up after so you can have that sisterhood aspect of staying in touch and having someone there with you on the journey. That's awesome. it was so important because i was so blessed to have so much great family around me to support me. So fortunate to have fabulous physicians, but there was like this missing piece, like, wait a minute, what the heck just happened to me? And then to speak to other women that went through the same thing. And I thought when I was so frightened in the hospital, if somebody would have walked in ah few years out as I am now, looking great and strong and confident, i would have said, oh shoot, okay, I've got this.
00:18:06
Speaker
The last thing I would say to everyone out there is your one takeaway is know your numbers. Know your blood pressure, your cholesterol, your blood sugar, and your BMI.
00:18:17
Speaker
And then just listen to your body. Nice, nice. And and one one more question on on that note. what What are some good ways to help us, you know, with the busyness of life and everything going on? How do you keep track of that? How do you recommend staying on top of those numbers? Well, some people have an at-home blood pressure cuff, so you can keep track of that.
00:18:41
Speaker
But if you just go for your your annual whatever your regular checkup time is, but have your blood work and know the numbers, and I used to, I still do, get afraid of, oh, I'd rather not know. I always thought I'd just rather bury my head in the sand.
00:18:58
Speaker
But knowledge is power. And as we said earlier, if it's 80% preventable, If we know what's going on, we can do our part control Absolutely. Knowledge is power, 100%. And we need to move into that awareness without the fear, with owning the knowledge. And then we do the best we can. And then we live better, healthier, stress-free lives that way. that's the goal.
00:19:24
Speaker
Love it!
Conclusion and Empowerment
00:19:25
Speaker
On the note of resources as well, if folks want to follow what you're up to and see what you're offering and what you're doing in this area, can you remind us of your social channels where folks can find you? Beauty and Heart with Jo on Instagram and Facebook.
00:19:43
Speaker
Thank you so much for doing the work that you do. It's an incredible step to go from having an experience like you've described and surviving that and moving into a place of thriving and also continuing to hold that space to help others on the journey. I think that's really excellent and I'm very proud to be related to someone like you. you.
00:20:06
Speaker
Thank you. It's always mutual. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Thank you for listening.