Women Urged to “GO RED” to Focus Attention on Cardiovascular Disease

Choosing to ignore your heart health might not seem life changing today, but women are dying of heart disease at the rate of almost one per minute. Luckily, cardiovascular disease is largely preventable. Women simply have to choose to act.
Since 2004, the American Heart Association has been running a “Go Red” campaign, aimed to focus attention on Cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 killer of women and the No. 1 health threat facing women today.

This has claimed nearly 14,000 New Jersey women’s lives annual, and African-American women face a greater threat of death from heart disease than women of other races.
Cardiovascular disease kills approximately 450,000 women each year, which is about one every minute. More women die of cardiovascular disease than the next five causes of death combined, including all forms of cancer. Sixty-four percent of women who die suddenly of coronary heart disease have no previous symptoms. More than 41 million American women are living with one or more types of cardiovascular disease, yet only one in five view heart disease as their greatest health threat.
Research shows that 96 percent of women who “Go Red” have made at least one choice to improve their heart health. For example:
• More than 40 percent have lost weight.
• More than half have increased their exercise.
• Six out of ten have changed their diets.
• 53 percent have checked their cholesterol levels.
• One third have investigated their family’s history of heart disease or talked to their doctor about their personal heart risks.

You may look and feel healthy, but do you know your risk for developing heart disease in the next 10 years? The American Heart Association’s Go Red Heart CheckUp only takes a few minutes to assess your main cardiovascular health risk factors. You’ll be rewarded with a Personal Action Plan, a customized guide to help you achieve your fitness and nutrition goals and live heart smart.

Choose to take the Go Red Heart CheckUp and enroll in the Go Red For Women movement at GoRedForWomen.org. Whether it’s eating healthier, exercising more, reducing our cholesterol, or quitting smoking, Go Red helps women make these choices for themselves and each other.

Choose to know the warning signs of heart attack, stroke and sudden cardiac arrest. Not all warning signs occur in every situation. If some warning signs occur or you observe them in someone else, get help fast. Heart attack, sudden cardiac arrest and stroke are urgent medical emergencies. Call 9-1-1 immediately!

Heart Attack
The most common or “classic” warning signs of a heart attack:
• Uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing or pain in the center of the chest lasting more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back
• Pain that may spread to the shoulders, neck or arms
• Chest discomfort with lightheadedness, fainting, sweating, nausea or shortness of breath may also occur

Less common signs of a heart attack, which often occur in women:
• Atypical chest pain, stomach or abdominal pain
• Nausea or dizziness
• Shortness of breath and difficulty breathing
• Unexplained anxiety, weakness or fatigue
• Palpitations, cold sweat or paleness

Stroke • Sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Sudden cardiac arrest is different than a heart attack, but cardiac arrest can be caused be several factors, including heart attack, trauma, electrocution or drowning, or it can have no known cause. Unresponsiveness is the critical red flag for sudden cardiac arrest.

* All statistics and figures according to the American Heart Association

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