Examples Coronary heart disease (heart attack)

Smoking

• If you don’t smoke, don’t start
• If you smoke, quit
• Avoid others’ tobacco smoke

Why We Need Go Red For Women Physical Inactivity

• Inactive women:
• White females — 36%
• Black females — 55%
• Hispanic females — 57%
• Asian/Pacific Islander females — 46%

Physical Inactivity

• Increases heart disease and stroke risk
• 30 minutes or more of activity on most or all days of the week helps reduce risk by controlling blood cholesterol, diabetes and obesity and helping to lower HBP

Why We Need Go Red For Women Obesity / Overweight

• Overweight/obese women age 20 and older:
• White females — 57%
• Black females — 77%
• Mexican-American females — 72%

Why We Need Go Red For Women Diabetes

• American females with physician-diagnosed diabetes — 5.5%
• American females with undiagnosed diabetes — 2.5%
• Total American women age 20 and older
• with diabetes — 6 million

What Is Diabetes?

• A progressive disease in which your body doesn’t make enough insulin / doesn’t respond properly to it
• Defined as a fasting glucose of 126 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or more

Why Is Diabetes Bad?

• 66-75% of people with diabetes die of some form of CVD
• Diabetes lowers “good” cholesterol, and raises “bad” cholesterol and triglyceride levels
• Many people with diabetes also have high blood pressure and are overweight

Go Red For Women Helps More Women Know Their Risk

• Learn your risk factors
• Live a healthy lifestyle to reduce them
• Know the warning signs of heart attack and stroke

Heart Attack Warning Signs

• Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and returns
• Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach
• Shortness of breath with or before chest discomfort
• Cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness

Stroke Warning Signs

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

Go Red For Women!

Become a Health Champion!

• Sign up for Go Red today by calling 1-888-MY-HEART or visiting americanheart.org
• Enroll in Choose To Move and Simple Solutions
• Attend your local Go Red luncheon to help raise funds for heart disease research
• Contact your local AHA to learn how to get involved in your community