12A
LIFESTYLES / The Charlotte Post
December 5,1996
HEALTHY BODY/ HEALTHY MIND ®]()e Cliarlotte
Women suffer heart diseases, too
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RICHMOND, Ind. - Carol
Pentecost was surprised by
chest pain one night last yeeir.
She was even more surprised
to learn what caused it.
“I woke up at 3 a.m. ar.d felt
this pain in my chest,” said
Ms. Pentecost, 33. “It was a
heavy uncomfortable feeling,
and somehow I knew I was
having a heart attack.”
She was surprised because,
like many people, she thought
heart disease was a concern
for men, not her. But the
American Heart Association
says heart disease kills more
women each year than all can
cers combined.
“As a woman, you don’t
expect that you will suffer
from heart disease. I thought
it was something (a middle-
aged) man would have to
worry about, not a 30-some
thing woman,” she said.
Two weeks before suffering
the attack, Ms. Pentecost vis
ited her doctor. Though she
had other health problems,
the doctor did not consider
them likely signs of a heart
attack.
“My blood pressure was high
and they placed me on med
ication. We figured out that
my grandfather suffered from
a heart attack, but no one else
in my immediate family suf
fers from heart disease.”
For many years, a woman’s
biggest fear was breast can
cer, said Dr. Edward
Harlamert, an Indianapolis
cardiologist. Men were gener
ally diagnosed with heart dis
ease at a younger age, he said.
But researchers began to real
ize that heart disease can be
just as much a risk for
women.
“When a woman reaches
menopause, the risk of her
developing heart disease
increases,” Harlamert said.
“Younger women are protect
ed by estrogen. Research has
shown that (estrogen) helps to
keep their cholesterol levels
low.”
After menopause, a woman’s
risk of a heart attack nearly
reaches that of a man’s in
about 10 years, according to
the American Heart
Association.
“More women are realizing
that they are no longer
immune,” said Electa Berk,
cardiac rehabilitation nurse at
Reid Hospital & Health Care
Services.
Women’s symptoms are not
the same as men’s, and often
they do not realize they are
having problems until .after
they are diagnosed, she said.
“When they do show up, they
are usually sicker then men.
It’s the aider age and many
suffer from other diseases.
What has changed is that
more doctors are now looking
more closely at women who
complain about chest pains,”
Ms. Berk said.
“When you hear some men
talk about it, they remember
suffering from sharp pain in
their chest,” she said. “By
speaking to other women who
have the same problem, our
experiences are much differ
ent.”
Harlamert said genetics and
smoking are the two largest
contributors to younger
women develop
ing heart dis
ease.
Smoking is the
greatest avoid
able cause of
death for women,
and it is the
biggest risk fac
tor for a heart
attack, he said.
Cigarettes
place added
strain on the
heart because
smoking causes
the blood vessels
to constrict. If
blood vessels
have heen nar
rowed and dam
aged by heart
disease, smoking
only worsens the situation, he
said.
“It is very rare that I see
women under the age of 40
with heart disease who are
non-smokers,” Harlamert
said. “Well over 90 percent of
women I see with (heart dis
ease) are smokers.”
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Tips for avoiding holiday headaches
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA - For
headache sufferers, any
change in eating habits, envi
ronment, and routine can
increase the frequency of
headaches. When these
changes all occur at the same
time, as they do during the
hdliday season, headaches can
happen more frequently and
with greater intensity.
So here are some tips to help
you conquer and avoid holiday
headaches:
•The best advice for
headache sufferers tempted by
an overabundance of food and
drink is: don’t overindulge.
•Chocolate, sweets, and alco
hol (especially red wine, fancy
liqueurs, or aged alcohol) are
known to trigger headaches in
migraine sufferers. So if you
have an eggnog and a few
extra desserts at holiday time,
you may find yourself with a
migraine.
•If you drink too much, eat
something high in fructose
(sugar found in fruit and
honey) to help your body bum
off the alcohol more quickly.
•Standard fare at holiday
parties - hot dogs, lunch
meats, pepperoni, corned bjeef,
smoked fish, and cured hams —
have high levels of nitrites,
which have also been linked to
headache.
•Monosodium glutamate
(MSG) is a known headache
trigger. It is found in Chinese
foods as well as certain instant
foods, such as canned soup
and frozen dinners.
•If you’re too busy to eat,
you may also have an
increase in headache, as low
ered blood sugar may cause
blood vessels to dilate.
•Sleeping in, or changing
time zones and not giving
yourself a day or two to adjust,
can alter the body’s circadian
rhythm and bring on
headaches. Get up at the same
time each day, even after late-
night parties.
•Caffeine withdrawal com
monly causes headaches. For
coffee drinkers, sleeping late
during holiday vacation causes
twice the problem: too much
sleep and that first cup of cof
fee coming later than usual.
•After attending a matinee
movie, spend a few minutes in
the lobby to give your eyes
time to adjust from the dark
ness of the theater to bright
daylight. Bright light and
glare trigger migraine
headaches. Bring sunglasses.
•Get a carhon monoxide
detector. Low levels of carbon
monoxide from faulty heaters
or other sources can cause
headaches.
•Turn down the volume.
Whether it’s music, family
parties, parades, or sporting
events, loud noise is a common
headache trigger.
Headache sufferers often
find themselves in a minefield
of headache triggers during
the holidays. You want to
enjoy the time off and the good
food, but it’s important to
enjoy them gradually and in
moderation.
An estimated 40 million
Americans suffer from chronic
headaches. But^only^S to 7 per
cent of those headache suffer
ers seek medical help. Most
people think they have to suf
fer without relief, or they don’t
think going to a doctor will do
any good. The fact is, 90 per
cent of all people with
headaches find some degree of
relief if they see a doctor.
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Holiday Bargain Hunters!
Florida midwife overcomes obstacles
By Bill Kaczor
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FLOWERSVIEW, Fla. -
Gladys Milton, one of Florida’s
few remaining “granny mid
wives,” traces her interest in
delivering babies to childhood
curiosity about “the birds and
the bees and aU that stuff.”
Along the way, she has over
come the grief of losing two of
her seven children to a drunken
driver, fires that twice destroyed
her birthing center and state
bureaucrats who tried to put
her out of business.
As an 8-year-old she thought
the answer to where babies real
ly came from had to be in the
’True Stories magazines that her
aunt, a midwife, wouldn’t let
her read.
“I wanted to know about this
baby business,” recalled Milton,
now 72. “The only way I could
do that was to read her books
while she went fishing, which
means I sacrificed my fishing
trip.”
It was a big sacrifice, too, she
said, because the only thing she
liked more than fishing once
was fishing twice.
“I look back to then as the
beginning point,” she said,
though she did not start practic
ing midwifery until she was 35.
After delivering more than
2,000 babies. Gov. Lawton
Chiles inducted her into the
Florida Women’s Hall of Fame
two years eigo. She is regarded
“with utmost reverence and
awe,” said Beth Swisher, leg
islative liaison for the Midwives
Association of Florida
Milton still maintains her cer
tification primarily to serve as a
backup to her yovmgest daugh
ter at the Milton Memorial
Birthing Center connected to
the rear of her home.
Maria Milton is carrying on
her mother’s legacy in this tiny
Panhandle community nestled
among pine forests and fields of
cotton and peanuts near the
Florida-Alabama state line
about 20 miles northeast of
Crestview.
Patients come from through
out Walton and neighboring
Okaloosa counties in Florida
and Covington County, Ala.
Many come, as they always
have, because hospitals are too
far away or too expensive.
But an increasing number are
coming even though they have
hospitals nearby or health
insurance to pay the bills. Many
want natural births, free of
drugs to numb pain or induce
delivery, and some are afraid of
unnecessary Caesarean sec
tions.
Karen Smith drove about an
hour from her Santa Rosa
Beach home for a prenatal exam
and plans to use the birthing
center for her second child, due
in February. Her first baby, 11-
month-old Jerod, was bom in a
hospital.
“I just had a real bad experi
ence,” Smith said. The doctor
arrived late, leaving the delivery
to an inexperienced nurse, and
then her husband was not
allowed to spend the night with
her, she said. Smith finds the
birthing center more comfort
able.
“I just feel the treatment’s a
lot more personal,” she said.
“And you have a lot more say in
the way you want the baby to be
delivered.”
Milton herself had questioned
the need for midwives when
public health officials recruited
her in 1958. But her oldest son,
Henry, then a high school
senior, encouraged her. He is
now Dr. Tariq Abdullah, a
physician.
After a year of training imder
doctors in nearby Florala, Ala.,
she was licensed and spent the
next 17 years traveling from
home to home delivering babies,
often in squalid circumstances.
To help support her large fam
ily she also worked days as a
housekeeper for Niceville artist
Emil Holzhauer and his wife,
Marion, and nights as a licensed
practical nurse at hospitals in
Florala and Opp, Ala. Her hus
band, Huey Milton, who died in
See MIDWIFE on page 18A
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