Seems appropriate that February has been designated "heart month" by the American Heart Association. The "Go Red for Women" campaign is an important campaign to increase awareness of heart disease in women. If you want an eye-opening testimonial, just review the compelling story of Dr. Helen on our website, MedTees.com. Just yesterday, the Chicago Tribune had a piece on the WISE study which has illustrated the cause of some of the differences in presentation clinically of heart disease in women as opposed to men. It is remarkable that breast cancer, causing about 42,000 deaths annually in the U.S., has had a lobby/PR effort that has been so effective at getting their message out, but the heart disease lobby has had trouble reaching the masses regarding the sad fact that nearly 356,000 deaths in women occur per year in the U.S. from cardiovascular causes, nearly eight times that of breast cancer.
So tomorrow, wear red. Shirt, pants, socks, ties, and yes, t-shirts. Red, red, red. Time to get folks thinking about the impact of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and genetics to contribute to this near-epidemic of heart disease in women. It's a lot more likely to kill you than bird flu, which seems to be having way too much press lately....
--Wes
I couldn't agree more. I am amazed by the number of women who honestly thought that breast cancer is the #1 leading killer of women. Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad that the breast cancer folks have gotten the word out, but more women need to be aware of heart disease. Thanks for your post on this.
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