I love Barbra Streisand. I have always thought she is beautiful. I love her voice and a dream came true when I got to see her in concert in Toronto. I love her movies; whether she acts or directs. I love her passion. She uses her gift of voice to make money to enable her to fund projects that are important to her. She
uses her voice and position of power and admiration for her talent as a force of good to speak about her passions.

One of her passions is advocating for women’s health with respect to fighting heart disease. On Dr. Oz today she said that she cannot bear gender discrimination. She considers women to be treated as second class citizens in that they still earn less than men in the work force, represent only 19% of congress and in the area of medical research they have only conducted heart disease studies over the last 50 years on men. Even the laboratory mice are male.

More woman die of heart disease than men. One woman dies of heart disease every minute. Women die of heart disease more than all cancers combined. More young women are dying of heart disease today and this trend is growing.

The Yentl syndrome, named after Barbra’s 1983 movie that she directs, stars in, co-writes and co-produces, is a term coined in the medical community where a woman has to present as a male with the same risk factors in order to be given equal medical treatment to that of a male. Women aren’t taken seriously so if they don’t present with heart disease symptoms like a man then a lot of times they are misdiagnosed, can be sent home and then die. Women are actually advised to lie to save their lives. If you suspect that you are having a heart attack you should mimic male symptoms of heart attack and say you are experiencing chest pain and left arm pain in order to get the tests that are required to determine if you are actually having a heart attack.

Barbra Streisand wants women to be powerful. To know themselves and care about themselves and to take precautions in life. The Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center is doing ground breaking research. Secret risk factors that have been identified above the typical high blood pressure, family history and diabetes as indicators for heart disease risk in women include irregular menstrual periods, pregnancy complications, migraine headaches with auras, and autoimmune diseases. Symptoms for women include stomach indigestion, reflux, heartburn, back and shoulder pain.

An interesting analogy was made about the condition of women’s hearts. How many of us are experiencing emotional heartache? Women aren’t cared for enough by others and we don’t care for ourselves the way we should. We are in the centre of so many people’s lives that there are a lot of needs we provide and yet we fail to ensure our own needs are met. How many more of us are even intentionally harmed emotionally, mentally, verbally, physically, spiritually and what does that do to the actual condition of our heart organ on all of those levels?

Turns out the text that my ex-husband sent me today saying the girlfriend he cheated on me with was having an affair with multiple men was a “joke”. He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t want me to take him back. He didn’t like that I implied she could be cheating on him.

How has the last 2 years and the games he continues to play affect my heart?