The POWER of RED: Wear it on Friday to Support Heart Health Awarenes

-
Images Courtesy of Free Digital Fotos.net

“Go Red for Women”, a date designed to raise awareness of heart disease in women, is the first Friday each February.

The story behind wearing red to raise awareness the first Friday of February started in 2003, when the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute designed the campaign to create awareness of the severity of heart disease in women.  Back then, the disease was affecting and taking the lives of almost half a million women.

Sadly today -- after all the research that has been done regarding heart health and women, there are still those who either don't know the effects of heart disease in women, or believe that heart disease affects more men than women.

Did you know that:

  • More American women die of heart disease than of all forms of cancer combined? 
  • Most women do not know that heart disease is the #1 killer of women? 
  • Many of the risk factors for heart disease in women (high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, inactivity and smoking, for example) can be reduced or eliminated?

This year marks the effort's 12th year anniversary.  So what are the accomplishments of the National Wear Red Campaign?  According to the information published on the Go Red For Women website, the results are very encouraging:

  • Nearly 90% of women have made at least one healthy behavior change.
  • More than one-third of women have lost weight.
  • More than 50% of women have increased their exercise.
  • 6 out of 10 women have changed their diets.
  • More than 40% of women have checked their cholesterol levels.
  • One third of women have talked with their doctors about developing heart health plans.

As to why the color red, various psychology studies agree that the color connotes excitement, motivation, assertiveness, energy, desire, passion and furthermore, ACTION.

So this Friday, February 6th take the opportunity to ACT and wear something red to show your awareness of and support for women at risk for heart disease.

From the bottom of our hearts, Thank you! 
                                      __________________
     
About the Doris A. Howell Foundation:

The Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women’s Health Research is committed to keeping the women we love healthy, advancing women’s health through research and educating women to be catalysts for improving family health in the community.

The organization does so by funding scholarships to scientists researching issues affecting women’s health;   providing a forum for medical experts, scientists, doctors, researchers, and authors to convey the timely information on topics relevant to women’s health and the health of their families through its Lecture and Evening Series, and by funding research initiatives that will create women’s health awareness and advocacy in the community.    

For more information about the Doris A. Howell Foundation, please visit www.howellfoundation.org. 
                                                __________________________

 Sources:  www.goredforwomen.org
In Collaboration with Carole Banka, Ph.D

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Information you won’t want to miss: Is the cure for Parkinson’s Disease right around the corner? Part 1 of 4.

-
Image
Jeanne F. Loring, Ph.D., Research Professor, Scripps Research Institute The Doris A. Howell Foundation hosted a panel of Parkinson’s disease specialists who presented the advances in research and the challenges that still lie ahead in the search for a cure for this terrible disease.    The panel presented and discussed topics related to the research advancements currently being conducted, the efforts of the Parkinson’s Disease Association to continue funding Parkinson’s Disease research, testimony from a Parkinson’s patient, the latest in treatment, and a caregiver’s perspective on the challenges of providing care for a Parkinson’s Disease patient.  To understand the advancements made to treat patients with Parkinson’s, it is important to understand what happens in our brain that causes this degenerative disease.   We all have nerve cells that release dopamine, responsible for sending signals to the part of our brain that tells our bodies how and when to move.  When these
Read more

On Science and Tattoo’s: One that you might DEFINITELY want to get!

-
Image
The Howell Foundation will be kicking off the year with a presentation on tattoos… not the kind that stay with you for life, but the one that can definitely help in saving your life. What was once thought to be science fiction is becoming a reality, thanks to the research of Dr. Todd Coleman at UCSD.  His research is making strides in marrying computer sciences with biology and neurology through the elaboration of a flexible, portable “tattoo” that picks up electric signals in the body and transmits them wirelessly to any medical electrical device through applied mathematics. This “tattoo” seems to have all the components of your cell phone:  a wireless antenna that allows gathered information to be transmitted, the ability to wirelessly transfer power onto the device, Light Emitting Devices (LED) and light sensing devices to pick up information on the body’s blood oxygenation, temperature, your body’s mechanical strains and a variety of electrical signals on the surfac
Read more

A Partnership that Produces Results: Howell Scholars to Research New Approaches on Women’s Health.

-
Image
Foundation continues to touch lives and create impact in the community through education. Announces its 2014 UCSD Scholarship Awards.  Scholarships totaling $16,800 to fund undergraduate research for students at UCSD Dr. Howell with Howell-UCSD Scholars  left to right Angela Zuo,  Erica Birkholz,  Orysya Stus   Stephanie Myers   San Diego, CA. – April 4th. The Howell Foundation and UCSD awarded over $16,000 dollars towards their undergraduate research. Antibiotic resistance, cardiomyopathy, pre-eclampsia and papillary thyroid carcinoma are the areas of study that the Howell Scholars will research. The recipients of the Howell-UCSD scholarship awards will be announced in the Foundation’s event on April 4th “Nutrition: A Novel Approach to Pain Management”. The Howell Foundation recognizes that undergraduate research plays a pivotal role in a student’s success; however, having access to financial resources can often play a limiting factor in the achievement of his o
Read more