Heart disease is the #1 killer of women, and yet another condition is so prevalent that certain stores should be labeled “dangerous to your health.”

That plague is shopping fever.

Resistant to economic strain, relationship turbulence, and toxic workplace politics, it’s easy to catch in late August or early September.

A diagnosis becomes apparent via your credit card statement weeks after symptoms first appear. At this time you may seem to have developed selective amnesia.

“I didn’t buy this did I?”

There is no cure. As a beauty and fashion editor, I see collections months before they arrive in stores, so by the time they do, I’m nearly over it (having mentally worn and rejected nearly every trend). Shoes and bags are irresistible since they genuinely give last year’s wardrobe and jeans a new look with the least amount of effort, but a few trendy clothing items can also provide a fast update.

For now, the shopping list is short, sane, and in the safe black hue of 90 % of my closet (I can’t splurge until I’m truly in love with an item) but stay tuned:

A High Heel Black Bootie

I thought I’d never want these again, but ankle-cropped booties do look great with opaque tights and tailored skirts, dresses, or stretch pants like the ones below. Open-toe versions are the hotties in this category. Manolo Blahnik’s black patent booties are fabulous at $785 but I ended up with a KORS Michael Kors croc-embossed pair for $380. I visualize them as lasting one season — not a major commitment.

Black Stirrup Pants

It’s not clear exactly when jeans became a staple in every woman-worth-her-Manolos' wardrobe. But the denim universe seems to be polarized into below-the-belly, hip-hugging skinnies fit for Hannah Montana, and unflattering jeans — known in the trade as, shudder, “mom jeans.”

What is a chic woman to do?

Try Not Your Daughter’s Jeans. These high-waist jeans have a cult following for their ability to slim the tummy, lift the butt and diminish the muffin-top.

If that weren’t enough, they’ve received the Oprah seal of approval. But wait, there’s more: most women say they can fit into a size smaller than usual.

The Classic Indigo slim-cut jean costs less than $100 and is available online from Nordstrom.com.

It can easily be dressed up or down with the right tops and accessories. Here are three looks, from day to night, work to play.

1. Work: Pair the Classic Indigo with the Valette cotton cashmere top from Nordstrom ($168, in gray or oatmeal) The oversized collar gives the Valette an ample dose of structure and exudes confidence. Slip on a faux-snakeskin pump, like the Karyn ($125) from Nine West, and you’re set.

Maybe it’s hormonal. I don’t know about you, but at 3 AM I’m wide-awake and e-mailing my friends who are also — boiing! — awake and shopping online.

Rumor has it that sleep-deprivation leads to weight gain, general crankiness, and an urge to splurge on expensive designer bags you’d never buy in the cold light of day. I doubt that’s true, but Madonna and Martha Stewart famously get by on almost no sleep — and they seem slim and on top of their game. But, yes, they are well put-together, come to think of it…

When I do finally doze-off, I’m still multi-tasking and de-aging with these four ingredients:

Prescriptives Good In Bed Restoring Night Moisturizer ($65 at prescriptives.com)

A super-charged hybrid hydrator/subtle self-tanner that smoothes with shea butter and vitamin E, you wake up looking like you’ve been on vacation for weeks.

Rogaine for Men ($29.99 at drugstore.com) dabbed on my skimpy outer eyebrows with a Q-tip

A top NYC dermatologist, Dr. Debra Jaliman, suggested this to me as a possible way to regrow my overplucked brows... and it works! (But ask your own dermatologist first before your try)

John Frieda Frizz-Ease Crème Serum Overnight Repair ($9.99 at your local drugstore)

Work a gumball-size glob through dry hair before bed to restore a silk texture. It won’t leave any residue on pillows or sheets and makes-over crispy fried hair by dawn.

Hanro long black cotton slip-style nightgown ($124 at saksfifthavenue.com)

As a beauty editor with two divorces and thirty-six relationships under her Hermes belt, my expertise on makeup camouflage won’t come as a surprise — certainly to those who know me, it isn’t.

Like the Oracle at Delphi, my pronouncements on concealers, eye brighteners, and face-masks have saved many of my chums from anguish before, during, and after the D-word.

E-mails at 3 AM and frantic cell-calls or text messages from Sephora and the beauty floor at Barneys are the background music of my life. “Lo, my eyes look like raisins floating in dumplings, I’m blasted on anti-depressants and I have a meeting with my new lawyer at ten-thirty, clients at two. Help!”

My current (and hopefully last) husband, #3, has actually never seen me without concealer. Discretion is the best part of vanity, I think.

With that in mind, check out these tips:

If you’ve been up all night, mad with worry or just mad and have dark deep circles.

Try to think like a French woman — to them, a little blue-tinged eye is sultry. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been pouring over The Secret, or glued to TiVo’d Oprah; the suggestion of up-all-night is O.K.

Don’t aim for perfect coverage here. Just counteract the darkness with an orangey-toned concealer on the discoloration — peach or bisque, not a skintone-match shade, neutralizes brown, blue, or purple shadows.

Going one shade darker than skintone deflates any puffiness via optical illusion if that’s also an issue. I’ve found Bobbi Brown Corrector ($22 at bobbibrowncosmetics.com) to be the best. Most celebrity makeup artists I’ve worked with like Julie Tussey (her clients include divorced women Tory Burch and Christie Brinkley!) rely on it as a staple in their kits.

If you look tired or stressed (don’t worry, you’ll know because your friends will always tell you)

If you have children, they will probably still be insured on your husband’s insurance policy. But the ex-wife most often loses health insurance, after the final decree. Depending on her age, physical condition, and location, individual comprehensive medical insurance, for one person, can run $800 a month and more.

Davis Liu, MD, the author of “Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely: Making Intelligent Choices in America's Healthcare System,” has these suggestions for women facing divorce.

Consider an HAS

The Health Savings Account (HSA) was introduced in 2004. If you are young and healthy, if you don’t need to see a doctor very often, an HAS might be perfect. It allows you to set aside money, tax-free, to pay for future health care costs. An HSA has low premiums, but a high deductible. Funds go in tax-free, grow tax-free, and are spent tax-free. Your take-home pay is higher, your taxable income is lower, and it can save you up to 30 percent on out-of-pocket medical costs.

Short Term Health Insurance

Recent divorcees who have lost health coverage with their ex might consider short-term health insurance. This is catastrophic coverage, not to cover routine office visits, but to guarantee that you won’t lose the house if you need to go to the hospital because you were in a car accident. You can look through individual or short-term insurance plans at www.ehealthinsurance.com.

Part-Time Job with Benefits

If you are unemployed, you can consider part-time work for an employer that provides benefits. Companies like Starbucks, UPS, Costco, and Whole Foods Market provide health insurance to part-time employees. With increasing health care costs, these firms are becoming the exception rather than the norm.

Do Your Research

Every woman who has gone through a divorce knows it can be lonelier in the wrong relationship than it would to be single.

Being without a man is really not the survival test it is made out to be. Instead, when single, you can are in control and can enjoy the luxury of managing your own world. The whole universe your oyster!

As a single woman you have so many distinct, delicious possibilities to explore — far more than someone who's married. Seize the day. For now, your life gets to be all about you — you your attention can be directed at your desires rather than subject to the whim of a protesting partner.

You can focus on making sure that your working life works for you. You have the time to search for the right job, and then to concentrate on excelling in it. You have the sole say as to how you spend the disposable that is a product of your labor! There is no other half complaining you should be spending money on new wall paint rather than a new nail polish.

You can get the body you want — no one is pressurizing you to keep up with their penchant for calorific takeouts. Take this opportunity to gain control over your habits. You can decide how to spend your free time without fear that it will conflict with anyone else's agenda. At a moment's notice you can take a trip to the gym... or enjoy a quiet night in under the covers with an eye mask and large tub of Ben & Jerry's!

You are in the driving seat of your destiny — and the type of vehicle you motor around in. Who said that a pink mini-cooper was not a sensible car? Home is your domain — if you want, you can take pride in it and perfectly feng shui your pad without fear of a smelly soccer equipment voiding its vibe. And its location is YOUR choice. You can go for a shoebox with a fabulous location if you want — there's no one complaining about the lack of outdoor space for BBQ'ing.

Not long ago I wrote a blog post on my blog at Divorce Support.About.com. In it, I discussed ways to keep the family court system from gaining too much control over what happens in your divorce. I had a comment left that I found very enlightening and an apt description of how adversarial divorce has become. I'm going to use the comment here in hopes of making a point.

"Does divorce ever end? The answer, predictably, is "Yes," but not until you've reached the end of your patience, logic, optimism and reasonableness. Because, you see, that's exactly the point: The divorce wars have little to do with Mediation or Courts or even which spouse is the more childish of the two. It's about power and who can manage to stand on the log longer before toppling off, into the rushing water below.

If you really want to make it to the shore of singledom without finding yourself tossed into shark-infested waters, learn the art of endurance. Exercise until the sweat gushes from pores and glands you didn't know you had; take a Yoga class and learn discipline of the mind, spirit and body.

Build up your strength from within and get ready to stick to what you want like a barnacle to a shipwreck. After you've proven your tenacity, it won't matter whether it's a mediator or a lawyer assisting you on this voyage: You'll have set your course and now all you'll need to do is steer towards your goal."

I won't argue with anything in the above statement. If you have been through an adversarial divorce, you know from experience that it does boil down to who is the weakest, who has the most stamina, and who can hire the most expensive attorney.