Go Red for Women`s Health | Video

Van Tieu | 2/1/2013

You may notice a lot of people wearing red today. They`re taking part in Go Red Day, a national awareness campaign on heart disease - the number one killer of women. It kills more mothers, daughters and sisters than all forms of cancer.

"People think women can`t get heart disease and even for a long period of time doctors didn`t think women get as much heart disease as men. That`s a myth. That`s absolutely not true," said cardiologist Dr. Nicholas Mahr.

In fact, heart disease affects women more than men. In the United States, 43 million women have heart disease and 90 percent of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease.

"Their risk for heart disease is the same as men`s. If they smoke, or have high cholesterol or if they have bad habits or they don`t exercise or they eat poorly," Mahr said.

Healthy choices can lower your risk of a heart attack. Visit your doctor once a year, get 30 minutes of exercise daily, quit smoking and eat healthy.

Even though heart disease is the number one killer of women, only one in five women thinks it is a threat to her health.

"Women do get heart disease. They do have heart attacks. They can die of heart disease and that`s why education is one of the most important things to do in our-- to get the population of America to realize that women can have heart disease just like men," Mahr said.

In this year`s 10th anniversary of the Go Red Campaign, the American Heart Association urges all women to learn more about this silent killer.

For more information about Go Red for Women and all the American Heart Events in North Dakota this month, visit www.heart.org/northdakota.

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