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Listening To Your Heart

By MARY SHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 8, 2008

Women pay plenty of attention to matters of the heart. Unfortunately, it's usually about relationships and not heart health.

Just 13 percent of American women consider heart disease their most serious health threat. But, the harsh reality is that it is the nation's No. 1 killer of women. Heart attacks alone are responsible for 267,000 deaths a year, far more deadly than breast cancer, the Women's Heart Foundation says.

Campaigns — from "Heart Truth" to "Go Red for Women" to the Sister to Sister Foundation's national Women's Heart Health fairs — use American Heart Month to educate women to make the link between heart health risks and the potential for deadly heart diseases.

"We really have the opportunity to meet one-on-one and touch women here," says Kristin Passeth, a coordinator of Sister to Sister's March 4 health fair in Tampa. It features free 15-minute heart health evaluations and programs on heart healthy lifestyles.

While testing women is critical to identifying those at risk for heart disease, it's just as important that women take data about their blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass index to a doctor. A 2006 survey on women's heart health found that 90 percent admitted identifying with at least one risk factor, but less than one-third thought they were in danger and thus were unlikely to follow up.

Women who knew the seriousness of gender-specific heart health risks were more likely to be physically active (35 percent) and achieve weight loss (47 percent), says a 2007 study on heart risk awareness published in the American Heart Association's medical journal "Circulation.''

That's the idea behind the Heart Association's Go Red for Women checkups. The online tool can quickly offer a 10-year personal heart disease risk assessment for anyone who provides a few details on family history and recent scores for cholesterol, blood pressure, and fasting blood sugar. Many health fairs sponsored by the Heart Association and other groups frequently offer those tests.

Sister to Sister, which says its core mission is to offer free cardiac health screenings, thinks that women armed with medical information are more likely to take health more seriously. The free March 4 health fair, like ones taking place in Tampa and 17 other U.S. cities, will include blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, BMI, blood glucose and waist circumference tests. Also, on-site counselors from Tampa General Hospital will make immediate recommendations about how to best confront heart disease risks.

This year's fair, to be held midweek at the Tampa Convention Center, is targeting women who work in and near downtown. Dozens of local female executives and other business leaders were recruited to promote the idea of giving office workers a special lunch break to get an assessment.

"It's just as important as that meeting you have at 3 p.m. with a potential client," Passeth says.

To learn more about how heart disease may affect you or the women in your life:

Sister to Sister Foundation

www.sistertosister.org

Tampa Heart Health Fair, free

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 4

Tampa Convention Center

(813) 353-8110

Go Red For Women

http://goredforwomen.org/

A part of the American Heart Association

American Heart Association

http://www.americanheart.org

7272 Greenville Avenue