Making women ’s heart health a higher national priority

Today, in observance of World Heart Day, we’d like to share a blog post co-authored by one of our Disruptive Women, Dr. Bernadette Melnyk, and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH), which was originally published on The Congress Blog on The Hill this morning. Great to see such leadership in the Buckeye State! There is an old adage that “silence is golden.” But when it comes to heart disease, silence is deadly. A recent study in Circulation that tracked thousands of individuals over a 16-year period found that almost half of all heart attacks did not generate symptoms that would prompt a call for medical help.  For women, often tragically, there has been a long association between life-ending heart disease and silence. Few realize it, but cardiovascular disease kills more women than any other illness—more, in fact, than all cancers combined. Heart disease rates among young women, particularly African American and Latina women, are on the rise, and death rates have stayed unacceptably high. There is, without question, a link between public perception and women’s health, leading to too many women not seeking necessary health care until it is too late. Cardiovascular illness among women continues to live in the shadows of the disease advocacy world. There is little doubt we need to continue, or in many instances begin, the conversation on heart disease and its risk factors. What better time to amplify and sustain the conversation than today—World Heart Day. For far ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs