Fox Valley women tackle their heart health

A group of seven women across the Fox Valley region are ready to make a change.

For a variety of reasons, the women — ranging in age from 40 to 61 — decided it was time to focus on their heart health and signed up for one way to do that: The American Heart Association’s GoRed for Women Challenge.

The American Heart Association has teamed up with Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin for the second year in a row, choosing Elgin, Carpentersville, Gilberts, Aurora and Huntley women for a 12-week nutrition and fitness program.

Initial health screenings will be followed up with computer-based coaching and in-person meetings with Provena doctors for consultations on diet, exercise and stress management.

“With the GoRed for Women Challenge, we hope to teach women that there are things they can do right now to minimize their risk of heart disease and improve their cardiac health,” said Dr. Agnieszka Silbert, medical director of the Women’s Heart Center at Provena. “Even small changes in diet and exercise can make a big difference.”

Many of the women participating mentioned the desire to lose weight or harness the symptoms of thyroid problems or diabetes during the program.

Jo Ann Armenta, 61, of Elgin, said both of her parents had heart attacks and her dad’s came when he was in his early 50s.

“Since I look exactly like him and I have all of his maladies, I figured this is an opportunity for me to learn something and perhaps improve my odds of, if not avoiding a heart attack altogether, delaying it as much as possible,” Armenta said.

The women took the information from the first health screenings to form attainable goals. Armenta said she wants to increase her activity to 45 minutes of walking five days per week — up from 30 minutes three days per week. She also wants to find recipes for quick and healthy meals she can make for herself.

Armenta also signed up with GoRed Por Tu Corazon, which sends monthly online bulletins in Spanish with health tips, recipe ideas and event information. The Latina-focused program is not connected to the GoRed challenge, but Armenta hopes to use her participation in the challenge to raise awareness about heart health in the Latina community.

The seven Fox Valley women are committed to one blog post per week at ahabetteruprovena.wordpress.com to share their progress with the community. Since the official program start of Feb. 20, the women have already soaked up initial heart health stats, learning how serious heart disease is for women.

“Week one lesson taught me that one of three women will DIE from heart disease,” wrote Tracy Syslo, 45, of Gilberts. “One in three. I have five sisters!”

Heart disease is the top killer of women, a trend the American Heart Association is trying to curb. The group of women working with Provena doctors are the only group in the Chicago area but the GoRed challenge is nationwide. Visit goredforwomen.org for more.