Fight Heart Disease By Wearing Red

By Katy Full
Twenty years ago the first Friday in February was named the “National Wear Red Day.” On this occasion, women of every age and race donned numerous layers of red, bonded by the goal of raising heart disease awareness. Unfortunately, many individuals did not, and continue not to know that heart disease is the number one killer in women.

Sometimes developing in teen years, due to smoking, obesity, and lack of physical activity, heart disease is a gradually escalating illness, taking the lives of one in every three women. Disappointingly, even with such high numbers many women are still oblivious to the disease. In fact, it was recorded that more women fear cancer than heart disease, when in all actuality heart disease kills six times as many women as all cancers put together. “It is estimated that 700,000 Americans are expected to have a heart attack per year.”

With these unsettling statistics in mind, women pulled together in 2004 and formed the “Go Red for Women” movement. An organization through the American Heart Association, this movement was made as a promise to all females that they have the power to reduce risks of heart disease and live a long, healthy life. With a red dress pin as the symbol, more than 5,000 women nationwide have joined the group online, at www.americanheart.org, and received the pin of awareness.

Now, twenty years since the “National Wear Red Day” was introduced, and only two years following the “Go Red for Women” movement, both men and women alike are invited to slip on something red and show support Friday, Feb. 3, for the women still fighting this disease.