Looking for an awesome gift for Mother’s Day? How about the gift of health! Women are often the caregivers for their families, putting the needs of their spouses, children, and parents before their own. As a result, women’s health and well being suffer. National Women’s Health Week kicks off on this Sunday, Mothers Day, to empower women to make their own health a priority.
Dr. Deb’s National Women’s Heath Week Tips
Have you ever been so stressed that you can’t eat? Me neither. My standard reaction to stress is to find comfort in food. Eating high fat/high sugar foods raises 
endorphins or happy chemicals that can calm in times of stress. Stress also provides a great excuse as we are “too busy to exercise”, but stress may do something more that actually increases fat even if we are eating the same calories. It raises cortisol, the fight or flight hormone, that actually creates more fat, especially around the belly organs (visceral fat) which can be the most dangerous kind of fat to our health.
The body responds to all stress whether physical or psychological in the same way. When you are stressed, your brain acts as if you are in physical danger and you go into flight or flight mode. The hormone cortisol is released which actually increases fat storage because it thinks your body just burned a bunch of calories fleeing, even though it was only your mind, and you actually burned very few calories. It also tells your body that it is hungry. As long as you are stressed, the body keeps making cortisol and making more fat. Cortisol also slows down your metabolism so you may not lose weight even though you are eating less.
Americans tend to live in a constant state of stress. Our bodies need some stress but lowering stress to a manageable level is not only good for our heart but our waist line as well.
Dr. Deb’s Stress Less, Lose Weight Tips
Every single minute a woman will die from cardiovascular disease with more women now dying from heart disease than men. However, she is less likely to experience the typical “elephant on the chest pain” but frequently may be so exhausted that she can’t walk up the steps. Instead of thinking heart attack, many women will ignore this surprising sign, contributing to more women dying of cardiovascular disease than the next 5 leading causes of death combined, including all forms of cancer.
Learn the secret signs of heart attack in women that may start weeks before an actual attack, and most importantly act upon them.
Dr. Deb’s Surprising Signs of a Heart Attack in Women
1. Unusual Fatigue
If you were out to lunch with your Mom and she started to have hiccups, pain or nausea, would you think stroke? You should, as these are some of the unusual signs of a stroke, not often seen in men.
Stroke is the 3rd leading cause of death and the number one cause of disability
in the US. More women suffer strokes than men. In fact, women age 45-55 are twice as likely to have a stroke than men yet often will not show the classic signs of a stroke.
What is Stroke?
It’s crunch time for decorating, buying, wrapping and baking for the next week 
but nothing says BAH HUMBUG like someone in the family getting sick. Check out my tips to stop sickness from being the scrooge at your holiday.
Dr. Deb’s Healthy Holiday Tips
