From The Heart:Former Miss South Carolina Urges Healthy Habits To Defeat No. 1 Killer

If the American Heart Association presented crowns to volunteers who personify the mission of Heart Month, Daja Davidson would be among those in the running.

The goal of Heart Month, during February, is to raise awareness about cardiovascular diseases, promote healthy lifestyles, and educate people about how to prevent heart disease.

Contrary to stereotypes, there is no “typical” person with heart disease. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. One person dies of heart disease every 34 seconds in the U.S.; one person dies of a stroke every three minutes, according to the American Heart Association.

“There is a preconceived idea about what someone with heart disease looks like,” says Davidson, who grew up in Spartanburg and now lives in Seneca. “A person with heart disease can be any age, shape, size. The face of heart disease looks like all of our faces.”

Davidson gets satisfaction, but no tiara, as a volunteer for the American Heart Association. “I’ve hosted their Upstate Heart Ball, all sorts of things,” she says. “It’s wonderful to work with an organization that can change someone’s life.”

She wore a real crown in 2015 when she won the Miss South Carolina pageant. She represented the state at the Miss America pageant and placed in the top seven finalists. The scholarships she won paid for her education at Clemson University. Later, she earned an MBA from Louisiana State University.

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Davidson says she was thrilled when the Miss America’s Scholarship Foundation recently committed to supporting “Go Red for Women,” the American Heart Association initiative to raise awareness about women’s heart health.

More than 44% of women over the age of 20 live with some form of cardiovascular disease, which can lead to a heart attack, stroke, heart failure, arrhythmia, heart valve problems and a host of other conditions, according to the Heart Association.

“What I love about the partnership of the AHA and Miss America and Miss America’s Teen is that teenagers, as young as 14 years old, are becoming aware of the signs and symptoms of heart disease,” Davidson says.

“We hope to improve those alarming statistics by having young women involved in heart health from an early age.”

Beyond volunteer and pageant work, Davidson has found a career at Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative; weeks ago, she was promoted to Senior Director of Public and Community Relations.

She jokes that she was also “bamboozled” into serving as Executive Director of Miss South Carolina’s Teen, an affiliate of Miss America’s Teen.

“Things have come full circle for me,” she says.

Davidson developed her own zeal for healthy living at those pageants.

“Our habits when we’re young affect our future,” she says. “It’s important that we be mindful of our health at every age and understand the ways we can be impacted, especially by heart disease.”

High blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking are common risk factors for heart disease; at least one of those applies to half of the people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control.

While nearly half of adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure, almost four in 10 of those people are unaware of their condition, according to the American Heart Association.

“I think about someone who is my age, eats pretty well, exercises regularly. I want that person to know that heart disease also impacts people who eat clean, who exercise, who are young,” Davidson says.

Being overweight, eating an unhealthy diet, having a sedentary lifestyle, and drinking alcohol to excess are also risk factors for heart disease, the CDC reports.

People with diabetes are twice as likely to have heart disease or a stroke – at a younger age, according to the National Institutes for Health.

Davidson’s presentation at the Miss South Carolina pageant was about Type 1 diabetes; her brother was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 19.

Today, Davidson and her husband, C.J., own Tempo Sports Academy, a training facility designed to build elite youth athletes. C.J. played football and ran track and field at Clemson University.

But for most people, exercise doesn’t have to be arduous, she says.

“It’s a blessing to move your body. If you want to walk, that's great. If you dance in your kitchen, that's great. Movement is medicine. We don't have to make that complicated,” she says.

“We need to simplify the way we think about eating and exercise. It’s about adopting healthy habits, heart-healthy habits. Simple habits done repeatedly and mindfully make a big impact.”

Davidson says she tries to eat whole foods.

“When you eat well, you fuel your body well,” she says. “We all know what whole, clean foods are. Shop on the perimeter of the grocery store and stay away from the aisles with processed foods.”

That doesn’t mean giving up treats.

“When you talk about the African American community … My great-grandmother and now my grandmother … every Sunday there are three meats on the table, and one of those is fried chicken.

“That’s been every Sunday for my entire life,” Davidson says.

“As young people, looking after our elders and ourselves, we don’t have to take anything away. Good fried chicken is hard to come by. It’s about moderation and being mindful. Those great greens and veggies on the side are healthy for your body and your mind.”

Davidson is equally passionate about people advocating for their health, especially during visits to the doctor.

“The time we have with our doctors is ours. We’ve got to debunk the idea that we have no autonomy over our doctors’ appointments.”

Women recognize intuitively when something about their bodies isn’t quite right, she says.

“We can’t be afraid to push when our physicians are not meeting us where we are. No one knows our bodies like we do. We have to ask questions and make sure that we're standing up for ourselves, not being afraid of sounding silly or stupid.

“We need to be wise and strategic during our time with healthcare providers. We should leave feeling better than we came in because our questions were fully answered. That's really important.”

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Former Miss South Carolina Urges Healthy Habits To Beat Heart Disease