Joinsupermoms

Heart disease is the no. 1 killer of women. It kills 1 in 3 women each year and impacts single moms and black women at higher rates than others. It is the number 1 killer of new moms and accounts for over one third of maternal deaths.

– American Heart Foundation

Unless you have a congenital heart condition, you can eliminate your chances of developing heart disease altogether. Believe it or not, single parenting increases your risks of developing heart related diseases.

That’s why we take a look at single parenting and eliminating it as a risk factor for supermoms developing heart related diseases.

Being a single parent is like having to do pushups with one arm. Not impossible, but more difficult. You might argue that it’s not a necessary survival skill, but if you only had one arm and your life depended on strengthening your upper body, it would certainly be rewarding to do them.

Single moms only have themselves to carry the weight of responsibility that comes with parenting.

While we should build a resourceful support system around us, we are accountable for our parenting and its outcomes. To be successful as a responsible single mom, you must always plan for contingencies and embrace related anxieties.

Only a healthy mom can do that. A healthy mom with a healthy heart. Unless you eliminate heart disease or at least control your risk factors, you greatly jeopardise your chances of being able to cope with anxieties successfully.

Time to start caring for your heart.

Know that life will be life, with its lemons or strawberries and you always have to prepare for whichever it throws at you. It helps to stay positive and to take on challenges head on.

A healthy heart helps you stay calm and lucid when fears and anxieties hit.

As a seasoned single mom, I like to tell myself I can always face my fears. So, having braced myself as best I can, I tend to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. My method is to eliminate heart disease related risks and track my heart health.

That is easier said than done, and I soon re-learned, on a roller-coaster ride with my daughter, that the strongest heart will still skip a beat or two, beat faster and even force your pores to break a sweat when fear grips your mind.

Fear of falling off a roller-coaster ride certainly doesn’t come close to the scores of legitimate mental fears single moms have to deal with. Especially because most of our fears are not the results of choices we make. Nonetheless, fears are formed and exaggerated in the mind, and are often valid.

When you eliminate heart disease risk factors, the heart can act as a shock absorber, weathering the turbulence of your biggest fears.

Why your heart is so important.

In all cases, the heart must bear the brunt of all fears. It must keep beating no matter the grim constructs of the mind. A key defence against anxiety and fear is to keep the heart strong and healthy. After all, only a beating heart can keep the mind alive.

Being a single parent does not cause heart related diseases, but it does increase your risk as constant contingencies and anxieties can hit hard on the heart.

It’s important to respond to the signals your heart gives you as a single parent. You can best read those signals by monitoring key indicators such as your blood pressure.

A preliminary 2020 study by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has found that single parenthood increases your risk of heart disease.

While both genders were included in the study, single moms recorded the higher risk.

Handling the logistics and emotions of raising kids, navigating through fewer opportunities, providing for family and caring (or not caring) for self are all real and legitimate responsibilities. How you handle the mental anxiety that comes with each will have an effect on your heart.

To face your biggest fears successfully, you need a strong healthy heart. Let’s look at ways to monitor the health of your heart.

Eliminate known causes of heart-related disease

Keep your blood pressure at a healthy level. There are three monitoring devices I keep handy. One of them is a blood pressure monitor. With my blood pressure monitor, I can check daily just to monitor my ranges.

In addition to your weight, blood pressure checks are generally routine when you arrive to see a doctor at most healthcare centres. It’s so easy for your blood pressure to spike or crash without you knowing it.

Perhaps you pulled an all nighter, have an infection, are anxious over an upcoming event or are anaemic. Other times, it could even be the hormonal fluctuations of ovulation, a difficult phase in your reproductive cycle or even the approach of menopause.

Having a blood pressure monitor and checking your pressure daily lets you know your normal ranges and helps you track the different symptoms you feel as your body reacts to high or low pressure. You can better determine whether to get an immediate check, or briefly relax, hydrate and observe your body’s responses.

If you want even more monitoring insight of your most key vital signs, this wearable blood pressure smartwatch also monitors your blood oxygen.

Avoid obesity, which is a major link to heart disease. This means you should know your body mass index (BMI) or adopt another reliable method in determining a healthy weight for you. Try to maintain that healthy weight.

As much as possible exercise not just to look good, but to feel good and maintain a weight that reduces your risk of accumulating the wrong fats.

This means making out time to be active. Sit less, walk more. Choose the stairs over the elevator.

Your diet is another indicator to monitor. You can target specific heart healthy oils, fruits and meals.

Quit smoking and excessive alcohol. While these habits do not always directly cause heart-related problems, they do not help your heart handle dangerous health conditions optimally if they do arise.

This is a case of literally giving your heart a fighting chance. Smoking and excessive alcohol unfortunately do not. They worsen, rather than lighten your heart’s load.

Devote time for your own health

At least once a year, run a thorough check of your major health indicators. I have listed a few below based on recommendations by our medical professionals for women. But you will have to check with a healthcare provider which tests apply best to you after an analysis of your age and history.

These may go by different names depending on how your healthcare centre identifies them, but these tests will flag any major ongoing health issues that need attention or if you need to take further tests.

Some checks can be done at home with a specialised monitor or other medical device, but I recommend you do them at a doctor’s office to put your results in better context and also to understand how often you may need to get tested and why.

Additionally, some of these tests can be merged so you can eliminate others. So, if you haven’t already begun to treat your body to an annual health check, I recommend the following as routine annual checks:

• Blood Pressure check
• HbA1c test
• Cholesterol
• Fasting lipid profile
• Fasting plasma glucose
• Full blood count
• Know your BMI
• Cardiovascular capacity
• Kidney function test
• Liver function test
• Complete hormonal profile
• Mammogram

I have a health hack which is essentially to detox, exercise and maintain strict discipline in my health and lifestyle at least 3 months before going to run my annual medical checks.

This helps me set myself on a positive path before running annual checks, but also gets me on track to meet most of the doctor’s lifestyle recommendations.

Sometimes it has meant kicking a bad habit altogether. So far ice-cream binging is still a major vice for me, so I truly hope the doctor never bans that.

Accept what you cannot change

Put your anxiety in proper perspective and control what you can. Anxiety never solved a problem. Rather, it worsens it because you’re hardly lucid enough to strategize or even make positive opportunities of a difficult situation.

Also, anxiety leaves you more vulnerable to bad advice, scams and betrayal. Take your time to really assess a situation and determine your options. See what opportunities you can make of your situation and grab those. Adapt to change you cannot control and make the best of situations you are stuck with.

The truth is, single parenting is hard work and we cannot eliminate all anxiety. Many times you will be exhausted from doing seemingly nothing, but you’ve done a lot mentally. And that’s your heart telling you to take a break.

So do not take on any new commitments unless you have checked your schedule and energy levels and are sure you can handle it. Only take on the much you can.

Keep in mind that anxiety never eliminates a problem. Planning to stay healthy and disciplining yourself to follow through your plans, do.

It is challenging, but you are most likely in a position to manage your heart health and lifestyle. Take on that challenge and work hard to stay on top of it. There’s only so much a one armed person can do, but there’s hardly a person who doesn’t admire those who can do single arm pushups.