HEALTHY HEART NEWS
Volume 8 | February 2017
Beverly Keefer, Director of Cardiovascular Services / Mehul Patel, Medical Director of SLCH Cardiovascular Institute
St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital’s Cardiovascular Institute is committed to you and our community. We pride ourselves on being an engaged partner with the many constituencies that we serve. As part of our commitment to meeting your heart health needs, we have developed this quarterly newsletter filled with information that can improve the quality of, and in some cases, help save your life. If there are topics that you would like to see covered in future editions, please e-mail Beverly Keefer, Director of Cardiovascular Services, Cardiac Cath and Interventional Radiology at bkeefer@slchospital.org.
GO RED FOR FEBRUARY — AMERICAN HEART MONTH
St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital supports the American Heart Association and asks you to do the same. Friday February 3 is National Wear Red Day. Companies, community organizations and individuals are invited to “GO RED” to kick off February’s National Heart Month. Every red heart red ribbon or red article of clothing that is worn reminds people how important our hearts are. In 2003, the American Heart Association and National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute took action against a disease that was claiming the lives of nearly 500,000 American women each year — a disease that many women were not paying attention to. From that action, National Wear Red Day was born. It is held on the first Friday in February every year to kick off Heart Month and raise awareness about Heart Disease being the No. 1 cause of death for women in the U.S. By raising awareness, women can be educated to understand that more than 80 percent of heart disease events in women can be prevented by making simple lifestyle changes like eating healthier, quitting smoking and exercising 30 minutes daily. Go Red for Women also encourages women to know their family healthy history and their own numbers. Knowing cholesterol levels, both good cholesterol (HDL) and total cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and body mass index (BMI) can help women and their health care providers determine their risk for developing cardiovascular disease. While men and women share the same risk factors: smoking, diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol along with a family history the symptoms of a heart attack may differ in women from those often experienced by men. The classic symptoms of a heart attack such as severe chest pain with radiation to an arm may not be experienced by women. In women, the symptoms may be more subtle, and this may be the reason why many women tend to wait to seek treatment.
TYPICAL HEART ATTACK SYMPTOMS FOR WOMEN • • • • • • •
Vague ache in the chest Pain in the stomach Neck pain Shoulder pain Back pain Shortness of breath Severe sweating and palpitations
Go Red for Women encourages awareness of the issues of women and heart disease and taking action to save more lives. The movement channels the energy, passion and power women have to band together and collectively wipe out heart disease. In 2010, the American Heart Association set a strategic goal of reducing death and disability from cardiovascular disease and strokes by 20 percent while improving the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent by the year 2020. On National Wear Red Day and Every Friday in February – Remember to Wear something Red to show support for women with heart disease and stroke.
G O R E D
SO PLEASE — GO RED
Get your numbers Own your lifestyle
Realize your risk Educate your family Don’t be silent!
For more information, contact the St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital Cardiovascular Institute or the Hudson Valley Chapter of the American Heart Association (http://hudsonvalleyny.heart.org).
St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital Cardiovascular Institute | (845) 561-4400 | www.stlukescornwallhospital.org