Campaign Teaches Women about Heart Disease

"It takes less than a minute for a woman to ask her physician if she is at risk for heart disease. It takes less than a minute for her physician to answer."

That’s the theme of "Women’s HeartAdvantage," a new campaign to teach women about heart disease and ways to avoid it. Commencing Jan. 31, Women’s HeartAdvantage teams Memorial Hermann with more than a dozen hospitals and physicians nationwide.

"This is a campaign of awareness, but more importantly, of action," says Sharon Messimer, Memorial Hermann’s director of impact services for heart and wellness, and local campaign coordinator. "Most women think cancer is the leading cause of female death, but heart disease kills almost twice as many U.S. women each year – 375,000, as reported by the American Heart Association. Every year since 1984, more women than men have died of heart disease."

To promote the campaign, Memorial Hermann is offering free heart screening kits that contain information about heart disease signs and symptoms, as well as risk factors such as high blood pressure, stress and obesity.

The kits also contain action cards that outline the following six steps to prevent heart attacks:

• Talk to your doctor about heart disease and any personal or family history.
• Seek out other resources such as cardiac rehabilitation centers and smoking cessation programs.
• Know and recognize heart attack symptoms.
• Make sure the doctor hears your concerns and takes your symptoms seriously, or get a second opinion or request a referral to a cardiologist.
• Call 9-1-1 immediately if you experience symptoms that could signal a heart attack.
• If you have had a heart attack, ask your doctor about how aspirin, beta blockers and ACE inhibitors can help prevent a second one.

Studies show that 70 percent of women say their doctors don’t talk to them about heart disease.

"Women must start asking questions of their doctors," says Messimer. "A lot of women are unaware of the fact that their risk of heart disease increases after menopause, so it’s very important that they take care of themselves."

Messimer notes that choices young women make about nutrition, exercise and other lifestyle issues have a direct impact on their heart health later in life.

Women’s HeartAdvantage was developed by VHA Inc., a nationwide alliance of 2,100 health care organizations and their physicians. The program was introduced at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut last year.

---

©2006 Texas Medical Center

---

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/01_15_02/page_16.html