Wear Red Friday

Did you know that heart disease is the leading cause of death of women over 20?  Did you know that more women than men die of heart disease each year?  Did you know most of these deaths are preventable?  Today, the first Friday in the month of February, is a day marked for bringing visibility to heart disease.  By wearing the color red, red ribbons, red dresses, red pins, you get the idea, you can help bring attention to the disease.  Wearing red as a symbol is similar to wearing pink for breast cancer.

The Mayo clinic offers information about heart disease in women, including symptoms and prevention here.

Heart disease in women isn’t just an “old age” problem.  Annually, it claims the lives of not-so-old women, “young” and “middle-age” women, who are wives, moms, daughters, sisters and friends.

Here are some things that health advocates suggest you can do to reduce the risk of heart disease:

• Schedule routine health check-ups and keep them moms, even though you are BUSY raising a family
• Exercise 30 to 60 minutes a day most days of the week
• Get to a healthy weight and maintain it
• Stop smoking asap and don’t start smoking
• Eat a diet that’s low in saturated fat, cholesterol and salt.
• Take any prescribed medications as directed by your doctor

Encourage the women in your life to take care of themselves – help and support them, too.