By Susan Tallant/editor-in-chief
I love Valentine’s Day—red candy, red cards, red roses, red teddy bears and white cupcakes with red icing—it’s a good day.
Even when I was single, I would treat myself to the biggest chocolate truffle available to celebrate this day of love because I loved myself. Plus, any excuse for chocolate is a good one.
I also love my heart, and I don’t want to break it. So I made a promise to be heart healthy. Not just because of the extra calories I am indulging in, but because I don’t want to become a health statistic.
Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women over age 25. Pretty heartbreaking, huh?
By joining women across the country, in the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement, I can encourage other women to love their hearts too and make an impact on the statistics.
Need other shocking facts to be convinced?
Heart disease kills 480,000 women a year, about one per minute. Even though heart disease kills more women than breast cancer, only 13 percent of women view it as a health threat.
One out of 2.6 females die from heart disease compared to one in 30 for breast cancer, and 64 percent of those who died suddenly had no previous symptoms.
One in three adults suffer from a form of heart disease. On average, one American (male and female) dies from it every 35 seconds. Post-menopausal women get heart disease at a rate of two to three times higher than pre-menopausal women of the same age.
By sharing this message with the women in your life, you can help raise awareness and help wipe out heart disease.
The AHA helps by offering the Go Red Heart CheckUp. The online test is a 10-year risk assessment to help women calculate their risks and learn to make healthy choices.
Other ways to raise awareness listed on the Web site include the 2007 Texas Affiliate Lobby Day, Feb. 19-20, at the State Capitol.
AHA will even pay for one night of registrants’ lodging.
Roses are red, violets are blue, I love my heart, and you love yours, too.
Don’t break your heart. Log on to www.americanheart.org.
