Dans cette interview,Donna Mills explique que sa maman,professeur de danse à la retraite est décédée à 64 ans d'une crise cardiaque.Sa maman souffrait d'une maladie du cœur.

Donna Mills et son frère ,âgé de 11 ans de plus qu'elle n'ont pas hérité des antécédents médicaux de leur mère.

Le décès de sa maman a eu un grand impact sur la vie de Donna Mills qui a arrêté de fumer ,et a adopté une hygiène de vie .Elle pratique également de façon régulière le tennis,l'aérobic et la musculation pour entretenir ses muscles et avoir une bonne ossature.                                                                                                                  Sa fille Chloé a elle aussi une bonne hygiène de vie.

 How Donna Mills Fights Heart Disease

Reviewed by Edward C. Geehr, M.D., Lifescript Chief Medical Officer

Donna Mills is famous for playing heartless characters. But in real life, the concerned actress works hard to prevent heart disease. Here’s why…

For more than four decades, Donna Mills, 74, has played women without a heart in some of television’s most popular shows.

She starred as back-stabbing vixen Abby Cunningham on the CBS nighttime soap opera “Knots Landing” and most recently on longtime ABC soap opera “General Hospital.” She was convincing in at those roles that she won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Villainess in 1986, 1988 and 1989.

“I’m not even sure Abby had a heart,” Mills says. “I really loved, and still love, Abby.”

But the real Mills isn’t like the mean women she portrays. She’s in a long-term relationship with partner Richard Holland. And she relies on her friends to perfect her tennis backhand and blow off steam.

On screen, the heartless Abby’s heart was broken a few times. Mills’ has been too – by her mother’s death from heart disease.

When Mills was in her 30s, her 64-year-old mother, a dance teacher, died from a heart attack.

“I had just seen her weeks before,” Mills says. “She seemed fine. And all of sudden, she was gone.”

Typically, the Chicago native is tight-lipped about her personal life. But she sat down with Lifescript to grant an inside look at her heart, life and healthy habits.

“If I can help prevent another family’s similar pain and heartache, I want to do my part,” Mills says.

Do you have a family history of heart disease?
I don’t know. All these years later, I don’t even know what type of heart disease my mom had. I know that my brother, who’s 11 years older than me, doesn’t have any heart problems.

Doctors and families didn’t track those important details years ago, so it’s hard to find that family history.

It’s so good that the health-care community and patients pay attention to those details now and track them more carefully.

What led to your mother’s heart attack?
She had heart disease before her heart attack.

Back then, we didn’t know what we do now. It’s so important for women — and men too — to talk about heart health, family history of heart disease and preventative measures.

I wish I knew what type of heart disease [my mom] had or to what extent. Those details can be so vital to protecting not only your own health, but that of your children, grandchildren and so on.

Was your mother’s heart attack a surprise?
Even though we knew she had heart disease, I was still shocked.

My parents were retired and living in Florida at the time. About two weeks before her heart attack, they came to see me on the set of a film I was shooting in Florida and she seemed just fine.

Then two weeks after that visit, she was driving in the car with my father and just slumped over. That was that. My mother was gone.

Had she been warned she was at risk of a heart attack?
No one had told her she was in danger of having a heart attack.

She had some habits that weren’t heart-friendly and had made some changes. But I don’t think anyone impressed on her the severity or risks, or spelled out that she was in jeopardy of having a heart attack.

What were some of your mom’s unhealthy habits?
She was a smoker and knew she wasn’t supposed to smoke. But I think she still did, even after being told not to.

My mother was also overweight and didn’t exercise. She didn’t have a terribly healthy diet either.

So all the contributing factors for heart disease and heart attack were there. But women didn’t have those conversations with their doctors or each other like they should have.

It’s a shame because she was starting to make some changes.

[Editor’s note: One in three women dies of heart disease, according to the American Heart Association. Age increases a woman’s chance of cardiac disease. Other risk factors include:

• Smoking

• Being overweight

• Family history of heart disease

• Diet high in salt, sugar and cholesterol

• Physical inactivity

• Stress

• Diabetes ]

What changes had your mother made?
Besides trying to quit smoking, she was changing her diet.

She had significantly restricted her salt and coffee intake, but I’m not sure she was doing everything she should have, or even that her doctor had advised her to live a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Did your mother’s heart disease affect your health choices?
It had a big impact. I quit smoking. I started smoking in high school and smoked for about eight or 10 years.

When my mom passed away, I said to myself, “That’s it,” and quit. I haven’t smoked since. That wasn’t easy to do, but I knew I had to do it for my heart and overall health.

I grew up as a dancer and always did a lot of exercise. I was active and fit, but her heart attack and heart health also spurred me to stay active.

I vowed to stay fit as a result of her death and to never let myself get out of shape.

Are you still focused on fitness and exercise?
I exercise all the time. I play a lot of tennis, but I also do a lot of aerobic exercise and weight training, not only to build and maintain muscle but also for bone health.

[Editor’s note: Weight-bearing exercises, such as weight training, walking, hiking, jogging, swimming and biking, can prevent bone loss, according to the National Institutes of Health.]

What’s your favorite way to exercise?
Tennis is a huge part of my heart health. Not only does it provide an avenue to exercise, but it’s good for stress [relief] because I play with friends. It’s a good physical workout that provides a mental and emotional boost.

For me, a great way to relieve stress is calling a friend and hitting. It lets me release tension so I don’t carry it around.

Do you have other heart-healthy tricks?
My primary health-care provider is a cardiologist and internist, so I have checkups every year just to make sure I’m on track with my heart and overall health and habits.

I also had a test a few years ago to see if I had any genetic heart health issues. I don’t.

But those results didn’t change the way I live. I didn’t walk out of his office and think, “Oh good, I can get fat now,” or that I could abandon healthy eating habits.

I’ve learned there are so many factors outside of genetics – like smoking, physical activity, diet and exercise – that affect heart health. Women must keep their heart health in mind even if they’re blessed with good genes.

What do you eat to stay heart healthy?
I believe that sugar is poison, so I eat very little refined or processed sugar.

I love foods with natural sugar, like oranges, grapes and other fruit. But I haven’t had cakes, cookies and similar foods that contain refined sugar for a long time.

When I was on “Knots Landing,” I maintained a weight of about 104 pounds with a simple, healthy diet.

What did that diet consist of?
Well, it didn’t have desserts, pasta or bread. Those are the only things I didn’t – and still don’t – eat. One of the best things you can do for your body is to avoid refined sugar.

I love vegetables and eat just about any type of meat. I’ll eat chicken and steak.

Is going without dessert tough for you?
No, it’s easy because I’ve been doing it for so long and can still enjoy sweet things when I have a craving. Instead of cake, I’ll have a bowl of fresh berries or fruit when my sweet tooth shows up after a meal.

How have you talked about heart health with your daughter?
When I became a mom I knew it was my job to model heart-healthy behavior and thankfully, she’s taken after me in that.

Because I’ve been active throughout her entire life, she knows the importance of fitness. She also plays tennis and is very active.

She’s also good about how and what she eats. Chloe avoids processed foods and refined sugar in order for her heart to be healthy for many years to come.

Source:http://www.lifescript.com/health/centers/heart_attack/articles/how_donna_mills_fights_heart_disease.aspx

Suite aux attentats du 11 septembre 2001 ,les touristes avaient déserté New-York. Afin de les faire revenir dans la Grosse Pomme ,de très nombreuses personnalités se sont réunies lors d'une campagne visant à les inciter à y revenir .                         Quelques semaines après cette triste date ,elles ont se sont livrées sur Times Square, à une interprétation de la chanson "New-York,New-York",préalablement enregistrée en studio                                                                                                            Michele Lee  ,tout comme environ 500 vedettes ,avait répondu "présente" à cette belle initiative.

15 Mars 1982 Joan Van Ark et Kevin Dobson assistent à la 23e édition annuelle du Prix de radiodiffusion international , à l'Hôtel Century Plaza à Century City, Californie.

1987

Diverses époques.