At age 20, Dr. Yvonne Turner-Johnson, current Director of Emergency Services at South Miami Hospital (Baptist Health South Florida) was certain she had her career path worked out. That was until she walked into a hospital to visit a loved one. At the time she had completed her degree in law studies and was awaiting the bar examination to become a lawyer. As fate would have it though, she was so impressed with the patient care and the mannerisms of the doctors at the Howard University hospital, that she had a change of heart, and chose instead to become a medical doctor. Today, Dr. Johnson is fighting a major case on behalf of women against heart disease. An avid promoter of pro-active and preventive health and heart care practices, Dr. Johnson is playing a lead role in saving women's lives, as she joins the Baptist Health International team traveling around the world providing education and awareness, and dispelling traditionally held views about heart disease among the fairer sex.
As part of this drive, she has visited several Caribbean islands over the past four years including Turks & Caicos, Aruba, and St. Kitts, and on 21st July 2011 presented her latest heart awareness lecture at the T&T Chamber of Industry & Commerce, Westmoorings. Her presentation titled 'Five important numbers everyone should know by heart', not only brought awareness of the importance of knowing and controlling ones blood glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure and body mass index/weight but also focused on the relatively recent discovery that heart disease is the number one killer of women. And even more surprisingly, that women are more likely to die from their first heart attack than men. "Approximately eight years ago the American Heart Association saw the need to place emphasis on educating women on heart disease because traditionally for women the focus was more on things like breast health and cancer," she said.
"While those things are absolutely important, it was felt that women should understand heart disease was potentially their number one killer and that the disease's risk factors can be controlled or modified." Dr. Johnson revealed that estrogen has a large part to play in protecting women from heart disease, but that as a woman enters menopause, her risk for heart disease increases. She indicated however that the other factors usually associated with men having heart attacks, are now concerns for women as well. Traditionally, Dr. Johnson said, heart disease among women was not a problem in the Caribbean, but with the recent adoption of 'foreign' lifestyles, which include sedentary work, high levels of stress, overeating leading to obesity, and lack of exercise, more and more Caribbean women are also at high risk for heart disease.
"In speaking to a local doctor from south Trinidad, he revealed that 61 to 62 percent of the patients with acute coronary syndrome, either having a heart attack or about to have a heart attack, were women." Dr. Johnson also shed some light on one of the causes of the recent phenomenon of local women having an increasing amount of belly fat, a major risk for heart disease. "Your cortisol levels are elevated because of stress, and in the current adopted lifestyle locally you experience stress from things such as traffic and deadlines at work, and cortisol is released into the system to help the body store fat under stressful conditions. Unfortunately, the fat is stored in the mid-section, whereas traditionally the fat storage of women was in our hips." She also noted that obesity is a major risk factor for heart disease and that women should pay more attention to eating healthier. She is well aware that healthier foods are more expensive but encouraged women to use their creativity and come together to form food cooperatives to access the expensive, healthier foods.
Exercise too, the doctor said, is important for overall health and is also important in controlling all the risk factors of heart disease. Dr. Johnson also cautioned women that they should know their 'numbers' in the fight against heart disease and not dismiss readings that are 'okay' or 'a little high'. "The only thing that is 'okay' is a normal reading." She also advised women to take care of their general health and well-being. "If a woman is taking care of no one but herself she needs to pay significant attention to her health to ensure her well-being. "But I understand ,as a wife and mother, that we put our families first. "If you are unable to put yourself first in your own mind, then think about what those people who you take care of are going to do if you're gone."
