Christie Brinkley never could have guessed that her mom was struggling with atrial fibrillation, a heart arrhythmia that can increase the risk of stroke, heart failure, and other health complications.
“My mom was the most lively, like energetic, passionate person,” the 71-year-old supermodel and actress said during a Women’s Health Lab’s “Heart to Heart” panel in partnership with Northwell Health’s Katz Institute for Women’s Health on Monday. “She would literally fly from Hawaii, where she lived, to New York, get off the plane, challenge us to tennis, then stay up all night and want to keep going until the wee hours of the morning. She had energy to spare.”
But that all changed with a single call. After Christie learned her mother had suffered a stroke and heart attack, she immediately jumped on a plane to Hawaii to help take care of her.
It was a shock to everyone, even Christie’s mother, who had no idea she’d been dealing with a-fib. “Occasionally she would say, ‘Oh, I feel my heart palpitating,’ but we didn’t think anything of it,” said Christie. “That was the first stroke of more strokes than you can count in a decade.”
Indeed, after that first stroke, her mom had a second, which landed her in Honolulu. And eventually, she was flown back to the mainland US for care. This was all happening against the backdrop of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in September of 2001, and Christie said her flights across the country to visit her mom made her kids anxious. “Heart disease affects the whole family in ways that you can’t even imagine,” she added.
The experience fundamentally changed how Christie approaches her heart health. “It’s scary knowing that it is a heritable thing that could be in my future, and I found it very traumatizing to see somebody that you love suffering so much,” she said.
So, she took action, starting with making sure her family gets lots of exercise and eats a heart-health diet, which focuses on what Christie famously calls “rainbow colors.” In other words, plates in her house are packed with fruits and veggies. “We eat very well,” she said. “I raised my kids as vegetarians. I’m a vegan. Our diet, I think, is really heart-healthy.”
Of course, Christie also said she thinks it’s also key to have a good primary care doctor and to make sure your health never takes a backseat. This is often easier said than done when you’re the primary caretaker in the household, as so many women are.
“As women, we are really guilty of putting ourselves last,” Christie said. One way to combat that? Put yourself on the to-do list, the panelists said. “I think that is really important, because I know I’m guilty of that all the time. I’m behind right now, and I know that I need to be on top of it because of the [family heart health] history involved here,” said Christie. “So, I’m going to put myself on the to-do list, and I hope you all do too.”
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