Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Health Ministry

March 2004 - Women and Coronary Heart Disease:
Seeing Red and Raising Awareness

Perhaps you have heard about National Wear Red Day (February 6, 2004) that was designed to raise awareness of coronary heart disease in women. Festivities marking this date included a fashion show in New York City’s Bryant Park’s Studio Noir, where designers such as Vera Wang and Donna Karan displayed their latest designs in red in hopes of bringing the issue to the forefront of women’s minds. Here at Good Shepherd, we do not have Vera and Donna on hand to help raise awareness, but the Health Ministry would like to give you a few facts to consider:

1 in 3 women die of heart disease – it is the #1 killer of American women

2/3 of American women who die suddenly of a heart attack had no prior symptoms

Only 9% of women in a national survey named heart disease as the condition that they most fear – 61% named breast cancer

The risk factors associated with coronary heart disease are:

Smoking

High blood pressure

High blood cholesterol

Overweight/obesity

Physical inactivity

Diabetes

Family history of coronary heart disease

Age (for women, age 55 and older)

Many of the aforementioned risk factors can be addressed by life-style changes and in some cases, medication administration. The Good Shepherd Health Ministry feels that coronary heart disease (in men and women) is such an important topic that we have chosen to extend “heart month” into March. We invite you to visit our bulletin board in the upper level hallway for additional information and free literature.

(Information condensed from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/hearttruth/).  Additional information can be obtained by contacting the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at 301-592-8573 or consulting the website.

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