A lot of wonderful things happen in February including Valentine’s Day, Black History Month, Mardi Gras (for us New Orleanians), the Super Bowl and importantly for women, National Wear Red Day.  Every year during the first week of February is National Wear Red Day, a day for women to think about their heart health and how their physical and emotional lifestyle might be helping or hurting their heart.

Mark your calendar because this Friday, February 4th is National Wear Red Day!  

National Wear Red Day is a chance for women nationwide to show that they care about their heart health, and will take action towards preventing heart disease through healthy eating, exercise and regular checkups with their doctor.  This national event is sponsored by the American Heart Association (AHA).

Many women don’t realize that heart disease is the number 1 killer of women. 

As our lives become more hectic and stressful it’s critical to be mindful of how that strain could be impacting your heart health.  At any age it’s important to have a healthy diet, perform regular exercise, and decrease stress as prevention strategies. However in order for women to reach their diet and exercise goals,  there must be better access to healthy foods especially in poorer neighborhoods, improved public recreation facilities and listings of nutritional information in more restaurants.

A study published in the Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes journal showed that racial gaps exist in women’s heart-health awareness, women’s knowledge of heart attack warning signs is not sufficient, and nearly half of women report they would not call 9-1-1 if they were having heart attack symptoms.

Further, the study revealed that although 60 percent of white women were aware of heart disease as the leading cause of death for women, less than half of African-American (43 percent), Hispanic (44 percent) and Asian (34 percent) women identified heart disease as the leading cause.  In addition, most women lacked knowledge of proven therapies for preventing cardiovascular disease and half of younger women ages 25-34 were unaware of heart disease as women’s number one killer.

Therefore in order to really tackle the high rates of heart disease among women, there must be better awareness among multicultural and younger women, increased education about what to look for in terms of warning signs of a heart attack, and more explanation about why it’s important to call 9-1-1 if you experience heart attack symptoms.

You can help spread the word about the importance of heart health by doing something to recognize National Wear Red Day this Friday.  This could include wearing red on Friday, asking your workplace to recognize the event and encourage employees to wear red, writing an op-ed to your newspaper, or having a heart themed event in your community.  

While it’s great to do something for National Wear Red Day, you should be mindful about your heart every day.

Year-round it’s important to sustain awareness and educational campaigns around the prevalence of heart disease and how to prevent it. 

You can be cognizant about heart disease by encouraging friends and family to get regular checkups so that they are aware of any physical symptoms that might pose problems down the road.  That alone is a great way to recognize National Wear Red Day not only this week but throughout the year.