Have A Healthy Heart

Heart disease is commonly referred to as “the silent killer.” But, its devastating claim on thousands of lives each year is provoking an outcry among women that is creating a formidable heart healthy campaign sponsored by the American Heart Association. One of the most vocal volunteers is attorney, author, and television personality Starr Jones.

In Little Rock before an audience of mainly women, Jones recited the distressing numbers: one in three women will die from heart disease and stroke. Heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined. And, heart disease is the number one killer of African American women.

“Black women are 50% more likely to die from hypertension than white women,” Jones said. “So, when you hear a Black woman saying, ‘You are getting on my nerves, worrying me to death.’ It’s true.”

Five years ago Jones underwent open heart surgery. She pointed to her family history coupled with “a lack of discipline and sedentary lifestyle” as reasons she needed the surgery.

Jones looked out from the podium at a sea of the “Go Red” campaign’s signature color and laughed as she recalled walking into Mount Sinai hospital the morning of her surgery wearing “Jimmy Choo boots, a fur coat, and lashes.” The popular co-host of “The View” added that doctors stopped her heart for 22 minutes during the surgery, but there were no complications.

“Six days later, I walked out of the hospital in those same Jimmy Choo boots,” she said. She joyfully mentioned that her five-year anniversary celebration was last month.

Former President Bill Clinton, comedian David Letterman, and television personality Larry King are other well-known celebrities who have had heart surgery, but Jones emphasized that heart disease is not “an old white dude’s disease.”

She encouraged women to make “saving your own life” a priority.