I'm a woman of 41. My maternal grandfather died at 67 of his fourth heart attack and my mother at 65 had a surgery 1,5 years ago in which she had 3 bypasses installed. She feels well now, but remembering how hard the operation and rehabilitation was for her I hope I won't have to go through it or die of a heart attack as early as sixty-something.
My ECG results have never showed anything more serious than heart beating too fast. Blood pressure used to be low in school before I started drinking coffee etc.; now it's in the higher range of normal, but still usually OK. Recently I had a cholersterol check and it showed 200, although the good/bad cholesterol ratio was favorable and tryglicerides low.
However, I seem to have had a heart problem as a child of about 6. I remember having ECG done a few times, but my parents are unable to tell me what it was the doctors suspected. My father only remembers they said it would be a serious problem if I were and adult, but in a child it's not so worrying. Anyway it either passed or wasn't proven because the visits stopped.
I've always had quite high pulse (70-80), even as a teenager. Besides that I remember one particularly scary situation in my life when I was about 25 and after a tiresome trek in the mountains I got under hot shower and almost fainted. It took all my strenght to get out of the cabin and get dressed, and after washing my face with cold water I was able to go outside and after a few minutes of breathing fresh air finally felt OK. I still don't know what happened in that shower, but I feel if I hadn't managed to get out I could have stayed there forever. As it was, the next morning I was absolutely well and ready to trek again.
How should I approach sport activities? In my youth I rather avoided sports. Now I swim, jog, bike-ride, skate. I wonder whether all sports are good for the heart and how much depends on regularity. What else I can do to prevent heart disease? I'm slim.