Heart to Heart
Informative seminar sheds light on women’s heart health
Here’s to Heart health! (l. to r.) Lisa Bondy, Carole Klinger, Gloria Beck, Dr. Stacey Rosen, PAC Chair Felice Hannah, Vicki Mazel, Arlene
Greenwood, Deborah McElligott and Phyllis Goldstein
STORY AND PHOTOS
BY STEPHEN VRATTOS
“Fortunately, we at North Shore
Towers are in a unique position
because we are a hop, skip and jump
from Northwell’s two major health
facilities, North Shore Hospital and
LIJ. Unfortunately, many of us can’t
hop, skip or jump anymore.” Thus
bespoke Gloria Beck in her introduction
to the enlightening and
interactive seminar on Women’s
Heart Health held by NST Political
Action Committee (PAC) in Towers
on the Green Thursday evening,
January 10.
According to PAC Chair Felice
Hannah, who introduced her,
Committee Member Beck was
instrumental in organizing the
event, bringing together three
experts in the field of women’s
health: Dr. Stacey Rosen, Vice
President for the Katz Institute
for Women’s Health (among other
impressive honors and accomplishments);
Deborah McElligott,
Nurse Practitioner, Integrative
Health and Wellness Coach; and
Lisa Bondy, Director of Yoga,
also of the Center of Wellness and
integrative Medicine, and all affiliated
with the Northwell Health
system. This should come as no
surprise to residents, who are well
aware of ubiquitous activist Beck,
whose tireless efforts as a member
of such prominent NST groups as
the Women’s Club and Haddassah,
has served as a key component in
the continuing success of each.
“The good news is it’s never too
early or too late,” explained Stacey
on caring for one’s health, pointedly
asserting even those in their
nineties and beyond will reap benefits
from a positive change in their
health regimen. And it was perhaps
the most important message of the
evening, especially to most members
of the NST community who
live such long, active lives
“Women used to be thought of
as little men,” Stacey continued of
early medicine’s ignorant approach
to health for the opposite sex. For
example, extensive studies on the
positive effects of aspirin on men
in the 1980s at Harvard University,
which concluded aspirin to be beneficial
in preventing heart attacks
and strokes, initially lead to the
misguided application of a similar
treatment of the most basic of pain
relievers on women. And it is only
in recent years, the medical community
discovered the effects of aspirin
to be much different. “Imagine if I
told a man to take something that
had only been tested on women…
Not a chance!”
“Every part of your body is either
female or male, not just the parts
covered by a bikini.”
But diametrically opposed views
of oneself betwixt the x and y chromosome
bearers of the species
extends in all facets of life, from
how each speaks to one another
and to how they see themselves.
When looking in a mirror, for example,
a relatively svelte woman will
erroneously see their posterior as
being huge, whereas a portly man
will see themselves as Adonises.
And according to Stacey, women
and men are “all the way different
when it comes to their hearts.”
Stacey noted from the time she
graduated med school in 1985
to 2000 the rate of deaths from
heart disease between women
and men grew more and more
disparate with the former rising
and the latter dropping. In those
intervening years, such medical
advancements and discoveries,
such as stents, clot busters and the
aforementioned benefits of aspirin,
proved predominantly successful
toward men, primarily because they
were only beta-tested on men. But
the inequality of the anatomy and
physiology of women and the lesser
efficacy of drugs on them isn’t
the only reason for this disparity
in heart-related deaths. “Women
don’t take care of themselves,”
Stacey explained.
In an eye-opening pyramid
graphic, the good doctor showed
Dr. Stacey Rosen
12 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ February 2019