Hot Topic: Wear Red for Heart Health

This Friday, February 2nd, is National Wear Red Day, and the time for all Americans to show their support for women’s heart disease awareness. Heart Disease is the number one killer in women, with one in three American women dying from the disease. Each year, about 372,000 women aged 65 and older have a heart attack. National Wear Red Day has been established to remind women to start today to take steps to lower their risk of developing heart disease. This is especially important if you're a woman between the ages of forty and sixty, because that's the time when a woman's risk of heart disease starts to rise. But younger women also need to act now. Heart disease can begin early, even in the early teen years.

Coronary heart disease is the main form of heart disease. A disorder of the blood vessels of the heart, coronary heart disease can lead to a heart attack. Heart attacks occur when an artery becomes blocked, preventing oxygen and nutrients from getting to the heart. Usually simply referred to as heart disease, it is one of several cardiovascular diseases, which are diseases of the heart and blood vessel system. Other cardiovascular diseases include stroke, high blood pressure, angina (chest pain), and rheumatic heart disease.

While the average age for women to have a first heart attack is about 70, women are more likely than men to die within a few weeks of that attack. Twenty-three percent of women will die within 1 year after having an initial recognized heart attack and about 35 percent of women who have had a heart attack will have another within 6 years. Coronary heart disease is a huge threat for American Women but this threat can be eliminated or greatly reduced by simply working to reduce modifiable risk factors

National Wear Red Day is an attempt to help women make the connection between risk factors and their personal risk of developing heart disease. Women of all ages need to take action to protect their heart health. Risk factors are conditions (or habits) that make a person more likely to develop a disease. And when a disease is already present, they can increase the chances that the disease will get worse. Important risk factors for heart disease that you can do something about are:
·High blood pressure
·High blood cholesterol
·Diabetes
·Smoking
·Being overweight
·Being physically inactive

Other risk factors, such as age, family history of early heart disease, can't be modified. Among American women, age becomes a risk factor at 55. That is because women are more apt to get heart disease after menopause when their body's production of estrogen drops. Heart disease rates are 2-3 times higher for postmenopausal women than for those of the same age who have not yet undergone menopause. Women who have gone through early menopause, either naturally or because they have had a hysterectomy, are twice as likely to develop heart disease as women of the same age who have not yet gone through menopause. A family history of early heart disease is another risk factor that can't be changed. If your father or brother had a heart attack before age 55, or if your mother or sister had one before age 65, you are more likely to get heart disease yourself.

Although certain risk factors cannot be changed, it is important to know that you can have control over many others. You can lower your risk of heart disease— regardless of your age, background, or health status - and this process doesn't have to be complicated. Protecting your heart can be as simple as taking a brisk walk, watching your diet a little more carefully or getting some support to maintain a healthy weight.

To protect your heart, it is important to address every risk factor you have. Make the changes gradually, one at a time. BUT…it is very important that you start working on them now…today. Each risk factor greatly increases your chance of developing heart disease. And having more than one risk factor can be very serious, because risk factors tend to "gang up" and worsen the effects of other risk factors. So, the message for National Wear Red Day is clear: Every woman needs to take her heart disease risk seriously—and take action now to reduce those risks.

The material for this article was taken from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute website.

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