Toni Braxton A Life Of Ups and Downs In Matters Of The Heart by Jill S. Cohen She’s all heart. And that’s why we celebrate Toni Braxton in February during “American Heart Month”, the month dedicated towards creating awareness for heart disease. This R &B singer-songwriter and six-time Grammy Award winner (with over 40 million records sold worldwide) works incredibly hard to keep her heart both physically and emotionally as strong as possible. Her heart has seen some setbacks in both areas, but she has overcome them with strength, dignity and faith. The Toni Braxton of today is spunky, resilient, grateful and embarking on another great phase in her career and her life. Heart-related illness is still the leading cause of death in the United States; one in every three deaths results from heart disease or stroke. And, it’s not just a “man’s disease”. According to the American Heart Association, the disease kills more women each year and is more deadly than all forms of cancer. Over 400,000 deaths among American women are caused by cardiovascular disease and approximately 42.9 million women currently live with some form of the disease. Forty-seven year-old Toni Braxton is one of them. And yet, there she was, sparkling with life as she performed at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting on live television this past December. The word “heart” is a lyric in so many of her songs, and unfortunately, has found a place in her medical history too. In 2003, while performing the title role of Aida on Broadway, she became lightheaded during a costume change. She passed out and was rushed to the hospital, where she learned that she had a serious heart condition called pericarditis. It is an inflammation of the tissue that surrounds the heart. It can cause fluid to accumulate, which constricts the heart and reduces its ability to pump blood to the rest of the body. She has rebounded, through medications and lifestyle and diet changes. While she is still monitored periodically, she is back in great form. Ms. Braxton emphasizes that it’s important to know that symptoms include sharp pain in the center or left side of the chest, increased heart rate, mild fever, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Untreated pericarditis can lead to potentially life-threatening complications, so early detection and treatment is imperative. Ms. Braxton had undergone a C-section to deliver her second son, Diezel, only five and a half months prior to the episode. She believed that her symptoms were just extreme fatigue, or the cold New York weather affecting her childhood asthma. She admits that she missed the signals, as so many do. A month prior, she started to have tightness and pain in the left side of her chest, but dismissed those sensations too. Furthermore, she never imagined that she could have a heart ailment in her 30s. She has had subsequent bouts of pericarditis, but the monitoring keeps the condition at bay. In 2008, she was diagnosed with lupus, which is when, as she said, the real scare came. Lupus is an auto-immune disease that causes the immune system to “attack blood cells and tissue”, resulting in inflammation and tissue damage. The disease runs in her family. In fact, she credits her heart condition as one of the ways in which the lupus was detected. How has her heart diagnosis affected her lifestyle? Ms. Braxton answered, “I’m not on a strict heart disease diet, but I have to be conscious of what I eat. There’s no doubt that milk causes inflammation, and I can only have a little bit of Haagen-Dazs as a treat, but not a lot of dairy products. I eat a lot of seafood, since I have been on the brink of cholesterol and high blood pressure conditions sporadically. I love champagne, but I have to be careful and just enjoy a little of it. Almost every day, Monday through Saturday, I walk six or seven miles or work out for two hours a day with light cardiovascular exercise. Often, I get on the treadmill and catch up on watching episodes of Scandal on TV.” While on the topic of lifestyle, during our interview, Ms. Braxton suggested that IMAGE readers take a 28-day challenge during February – eat more raw fruits and vegetables, eat fresh food, and eat every two to three hours. She claims that you’ll become a fat-burning machine and you’ll have more energy. And you might even lose a couple of pounds in the process. Last year, Toni participated in the Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collection 2013 Fashion Show, as part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Heart Truth campaign. She joined nineteen other celebrities, by “putting on the red dress” to raise awareness about the deadly disease. She has said that helping create awareness of heart disease is something that she feels convicted by God to do. She doesn’t think God made her famous just to sing, but rather, through these kinds of situations, to be an example to help others. In 2008, she was a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, and part of a campaign in which Campbell Soup donated $1 to the Go Red For Women campaign for every person who voted for his or her favorite red dress before Jan. 30. Part of Toni’s mission in life is to educate women about their health — especially women who think that it can’t happen to them. After all, she didn’t think it could happen to her either. She advises women to become more proactive and involved in their health care, reminding those fearful of going to the doctor that if something is found, it can be taken care of. Women never put themselves first, she claims, and she knows this from personal experience, since she is now a single mother with two sons, one of whom has autism. “We always forget to take care of ourselves. It’s ok to take a break, without guilt.” Recent times have not been so upbeat for Toni. She had decided to retire, both from the business and from her very active lifestyle. She told me that she was in a “dark space, a sad place, “and was lucky to have friends who helped her re-emerge. It was her friend, the renowned Anita Baker who called her and told her not to retire. Toni’s story is one of triumph and hardship, chapters of ups and chapters of downs in her life. From Grammy awards to bankruptcy filings, from health scares to marriage and children, from divorce (finalized in 2013) to retirement. … and now to a hearty comeback. Her memoir Unbreak My Heart (Harper Collins) to be released on April 1, chronicles her childhood, her rise to fame, her financial setbacks, health issues, personal life and more. In 1996, after being one of the best selling artists of the 1990s, she was left with nothing in a chapter 7 filing; almost everything was repossessed. (In 1999, things were returned after a lawsuit settlement). In this book, readers will feel as if they are peeking into her diaries, filled with things they never knew about her. “Part of the therapy of “not retiring” is talking and “putting it out there,” she commented. In another aspect of her emergence from retirement, she is joining together again with her longtime collaborator Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, in a new duets album, Love, Marriage & Divorce (Motown Records), due out in early February. It includes her 2013 hit song “Hurt You”. “Babyface”, her closest friend — truly like a brother to her — suggested that since they both had recently completed divorces, they ought to team up and sing about love in all the forms it takes. Next, Toni and Babyface are heading to Broadway to star in the musical revue After Midnight, a show based on the life of jazz icon Duke Ellington. They will join the production from March 18 – 30, 2014. Now that Toni Braxton is back at the top of her game, we asked her to reveal some of her secrets, especially some of those that can’t be found in her upcoming memoir. For example, how does she keep her skin so soft and smooth-looking? She’s a Dove girl, using Dove soap and body wash. And, what about her hair? Sometimes it’s short; sometimes it’s long. She shared that her hair is most important to her, and she’s had the same hair stylist since 1992. She is most comfortable when her hair is short, as it is now. That’s when she feels her greatest strength. She shampoos only twice a week and sleeps only on satin pillowcases since they don’t rub. She assured me that, without a satin pillowcase, she wouldn’t be showing off her locks the next day. Her character is as strong as her heart is now. She calls herself the “energizer bunny”. She gets knocked down, and she gets back up. She always has to prove something to herself. In a sense, she is her own competition. In candid conversation, Toni told me that one thing she works constantly on is “being happy”, which she admits can be a tough thing to do. She does a lot of things by herself and takes on a lot of responsibilities and challenges. She is keenly aware that too much stress can result in illnesses. She admits that even taking a minute to herself can be hard, as she tries to balance her own life with that of her family. Babyface has been a great support and help to Toni, reminding her always to enjoy life and take one day at a time. He tells her to do things “in the moment”, advice she cherishes. At the same time, she is testing the waters with work, and listening to her body, careful to not over-work this time around. As we continued to talk about her philosophies, I learned that, though raised as a preacher’s kid, she is more interested in her own, more individualized version of spirituality. She is trying to be more conscious of appreciating the gifts she’s been given and not taking them for granted, as if they are entitlements. In fact, she used to pray that she’d at least win one Grammy, and she has been blessed with six. In talking about her image and aging, she conveyed that if she has a negative image of herself, it only makes her push herself harder. She just wants to look good for herself, and she doesn’t mind aging. In fact, she looks forward to getting older. “Imagine what I’ll know when I’m in my 60s, compared to what I know now. The more I live, the more I learn!” She claims that the keys to her beauty are good hair and makeup. But, she doesn’t sleep a lot! Now that she’s back in the swing of things, she knows that she will always sing, and never again talk of retirement. She’s even looking forward to dating again, and doing some traveling too. In the meantime, she’ll continue acting on the Braxton Family Values Show on WE tv, raising her sons Denim and Diezel, being a spokesperson for Autism Speaks, and raising awareness of heart disease and lupus. And there’s always a lot more to sing about, especially in matters of the heart. IMAGE
Posted on: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 01:11:20 +0000
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