Tina Samples - Hidden Dangers
Tina is an award-winning author for her books Wounded Women of the Bible: Finding Hope When Life Hurts (co-authored with Dena Dyer), and Messed Up Men of the Bible: Seeing the Men in Your Life Through God’s Eyes (co-authored with Dave Samples). Tina has shared her heart attack story at her local American Heart Association Go Red For Women luncheon.
You can find Tina at tinasamples.com, on Facebook and Twitter.
Growing up in a large family (8 boys and 3 girls), we didn’t have the money to go to the doctor unless it was an emergency. With that said, health insurance was out of the question. Having a large family also changed the way we ate. We moved quite a bit so the idea of a garden never happened. That left us with eating what we could afford—beans, rice and potatoes. Our meat consisted of pork chops, hamburger and sometimes fried chicken.
When we’re young we don’t think about food, especially when stomachs growl for any kind of food at all—even a bologna sandwich. We are fed what our parents feed us. While in high school, I watched friends take out lunch boxes filled with healthy food while I ate school lunches. Those who don’t have the money eat what they can.
Perhaps if I’d been accustomed to eating healthier as a child, I could have known one way to protect my health and avoided a heart attack at age 51. But then again, a doctor shared with me that he once treated a professional weight lifter suffer from a heart attack. Even those who appear the healthiest sometimes suffer from heart attacks.
Back in the day, parents didn’t take their children to get a cholesterol check. Why would they? As more people are educated in today’s world, more take the necessary steps to finding those inherited diseases that cause harm and even death.
Heart disease runs in my family. A few of my uncles had heart attacks at an early age. Still, that didn’t prompt my family to get a heart screening, cholesterol check, or eat right. It was a different kind of world back then.
I had a heart attack at a young age. Because doctors may have a difficult time diagnosing women with heart issues, mine went misdiagnosed for nine days. My heart attack led to a heart transplant. My entire world turned upside down. I’m blessed to have another chance at life unlike others.
I now eat healthier, exercise, and take meds. I check my cholesterol regularly. My friends, if heart disease runs in your family, perhaps now is the time to get that cholesterol check, not only for you, but for your children. Perhaps by doing this, a life will be saved. Perhaps your life will be saved.
