Joy Behar is an American comedian, writer, actress, and a co-host of the talk show, The View.
In the fall of 2009, Behar began hosting her own celebrity news and commentary program, The Joy Behar Show,
on CNN's sister network HLN. For Joy, heart disease is a family affair. Despite having lost both parents
to heart disease, Joy’s mother Rose was not prepared when a sudden heart attack struck in her fifties.
Now, Joy and her daughter Eve (a talented ceramic artist) are challenging women who have or are at risk
for heart disease to be prepared, and better their odds of surviving should a heart attack strike
without warning. And they caution women, “Don’t stop there.” Embrace this second chance at life
by living a more heart-healthy lifestyle.
Gary Barg:
Joy, it's a real pleasure to talk
with you again and I loved reading
Straight Talk, A Woman's Guide
to Heart Health. It's
filled with great information from
you, Eve, and a slew of medical
professionals. I was really taken
with videotaped interviews with
survivors. What do you think
women can learn from these
incredible survivor stories?
Joy Behar:
Whenever somebody survives a
horrible incident like a heart
attack or cancer or a tragedy, I was
thinking, how do you get through
something like that? What you
learn is the old adage, “If it
doesn't kill you, it makes you
stronger.” So you learn that you
have to deal with your illness.
You can't ignore it. You have
to be somebody who is proactive
about what’s going to happen to you.
I come from a family with heart
disease on my mother's side of the
family and I'm very proactive; I
learned that from my mother. She was
on Coumadin for many years and if
she were alive today, I think that
she would have better care.
She died in 1991, and a lot of
things have happened since then to
make it easier.
Gary Barg:
That’s right around the time my
grandmother died of a heart attack,
and it happened in the middle of the
night and there were no signs or
clues that we knew of.
Joy Behar: One
of my uncles was driving his car
home and he just dropped dead behind
the wheel. He was 58 and he
was on his way to get a stress test,
but they had no clue before this
that he had a malfunctioning organ
—it’s ironic. So I think that
when we say go to ProHeart's
Facebook page to download Straight
Talk, A Woman's Guide to Heart
Health, as you just mentioned, it’s
very important. You can enter
for a chance to win a trip to New
York and meet me and have a
heart-to-heart talk. The rules
and how to enter are available on
the Facebook page.
Gary Barg: I
made sure to enter.
Joy Behar:
Maybe you’ll win. We want to
put out the word that if you have
already had a heart attack, you
should speak to your doctor about an
aspirin regime; maybe it will reduce
the chances of having a second
heart attack. You can reduce
the risk.
Gary Barg:
Aspirin is so important.
Joy Behar:
Those are the messages we’re trying
to get across.
Gary Barg:
What would be the most important
piece of advice about heart health
for women who are family caregivers
when they do what all caregivers do;
they take themselves out of the
circle of care.
Joy Behar: You
see, that’s the thing; it's like the
mother taking care of the child.
The mother has to be healthy.
She has to eat right, also.
It's the same thing for caregivers.
They need to be in good condition so
that they can be a good caregiver.
That would be the primary thing I
would say to caregivers; make sure
you take care of yourself.
Gary Barg: And
that's advice for family or
professional caregivers.
Joy Behar: Absolutely.
My son-in-law is a caregiver.
He is a physician’s assistant and he
tries to watch everything he eats.
He's careful about his exercise, et
cetera, because he knows that when
those patients start coming in, he's
got to be on his toes. He has
to know what he's doing. He
has to be clear thinking.
People's lives are in his hands.
An
Interview with Joy Behar