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Broken Hearts
PUT YOUR HAND on your chest and feel your heart beat. Now put your
hand where you can feel your pulse. That pulse is the signature of your
being. Your heart, creating that pulse, is working for you every minute
of the day, every day of the year, and every year of your entire life. If you
live an average lifetime, your heart will beat about 3 billion times.l
Now take a moment to realize that during the time it took you to
read the above paragraph an artery in the heart of roughly one American
clogged up, cut off blood flow and started a rapid process of tissue and
cell death. This process is better known, of course, as a heart attack. By
the time you finish reading this page, four Americans will have had a
heart attack, and another four will have fallen prey to stroke or heart
failure.^2 Over the next twenty-four hours, 3,000 Americans will have
heart attacks,2 roughly the same number of people who perished in the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 200l.
The heart is the centerpiece of life and, more often than not in Ameri-
ca, it is the centerpiece of death. Malfunction of the heart and/or circula-
tion system will kill 40% of Americans,3 more than those killed by any
other injury or ailment, including cancer. Heart disease has been our
number one cause of death for almost one hundred years.^4 This disease
does not recognize gender or race boundaries; all are affected. If you
were to ask most women what disease poses the greatest risk to them,
heart disease or breast cancer, many women would undoubtedly say
breast cancer. But they would be wrong. Women's death rate from heart
disease is eight times higher than their death rate from breast cancer.^5 , 6
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