Heart-disease - it's all in the family

For months, Ruth-Ann Muldoon felt bone-tired. She chalked it up to having too much on her plate - she was attending university, volunteering for her church charity, helping military wives cope without their husbands and working full-time as a tax consultant. Even when she collapsed at work one day, she never dreamed it could be heart disease. In fact, she had been short of breath and felt a vague heaviness in her chest for as long as she could remember. "I was always pushing myself and not listening to what my body was telling me." It took another 10 months of blackout spells before her doctors finally figured out that she had vascular disease caused by high cholesterol levels - three of her heart's major arteries were blocked with plaque. Doctors performed an angioplasty and placed stints in the arteries to reopen the blood flow to her heart. With her extensive family history of heart disease - heart attacks killed her 42-year-old father and 32-year-old brother - she now understands the threat to her family's health. Her daughter Tara, 24, and her son Jarrett, 29, take heart medication to lower their risk now as well. Ruth-Ann attends cardiac rehabilitation three times a week and is learning to be more physically active and eat healthier. At rehab, she rides a bike, walks on a treadmill and does some stretching. She went from a size 22 to size 10. "Women should realize that heart disease is their #1 killer. Every woman should pay attention to their bodies and be assertive with their doctors if they have any symptoms at all - regardless if they are vague or not. I'm so lucky and grateful that I didn’t have a heart attack." Today, Ruth-Ann volunteers at the Heart and Stroke Foundation, does presentations for her community and canvasses every Heart Month. And she wears her Heart Truth red dress pin everywhere. "The more we know, the better we do." - Heart and Stroke Foundation