Heart Healthy Black History

I said to a dear soul, today is February 1st and this day marks the start Women's Heart Health Awareness Month and the start of Black History Month and the response that came back to me is why do we always have to share our month? Allow me to share my answer to that question.  Women’s Heart Health Month kicks off by promoting Go Red on the first Friday.  Go Red for Women is a social initiative implemented to dispel myths and raise awareness and empower women about risk factors, symptoms, and to strive for a heart healthy lifestyle. Heart disease is the number one killer among women.

Go Red for Women Heart Disease in African American Women provides some very unsettling statistics:

• Cardiovascular diseases kill nearly 50,000 African-American women annually.
• Of African-American women ages 20 and older, 49 percent have heart diseases.
• Only 1 in 5 African-American women believes she is personally at risk.
• Only 52 percent of African-American women are aware of the signs and symptoms of a heart attack.
• Only 36 percent of African-American women know that heart disease is their greatest health risk.

I'm sure many of you reading this now can think of a black woman in your life maybe even in your family or one that you passed in the hallway at work and you would not even know she has heart disease.  So, I say that by God's infinite design these two months were combined so that we as Black women can demonstrate, propagate, and instigate the importance of heart health awareness, healthy lifestyle choices, and healthy eating habits.  Know your risk factors; know your family history because you, my dear Black Sister are destined to be the name to go down in Black History as having accomplished something phenomenal!

Peace,

SharB~TTSD