Heart disease is the number one cause of death for American women.  It kills more women than breast cancer and all the other cancers combined.  That’s nutty, right?  I knew that women could have heart attacks, but I’d really thought it was a field dominated by men.  Apparently I was not the only person who didn’t know about this or about the fact that women’s heart attack symptoms may be totally different than men’s. As a way to try to remedy the lack of awareness about this matter, around a decade ago, the American Heart Association instituted Go Red for Women Day.

This past Friday, February 7, was National Go Red Day for Women Day.  I even wore red for it, which, if you knew me, you’d realize was seriously uncharacteristic. My wardrobe is 80% – 90% the same color. Let’s just say I rarely have to separate my laundry into lights and darks. But, for obvious reasons, I think this issue is really important and I wanted to do my part in getting the word out – particularly since the initiative has been around a long time and last week was the first I’d ever heard of it.

It being a Friday, I went to cardiac rehab, as usual. The gym there has 3 televisions mounted on the wall so you can watch whatever’s on to help pass the time while you’re working out. I listen to my iPod, so I can’t hear it, but each of the TVs has closed captioning. I don’t have TV at home, so I have been quite fascinated by the programming and commercials; I haven’t seen this stuff for years.

Go Red for Women logo

One of the TVs caught my eye; it was CNN and there was a headline boldly announcing “It’s Go Red for Women Day.” I was kind of delighted.  Having myself never been clued into Go Red day before, I was pleased that CNN was covering it.  Not only that, but they were doing whole segment on it! They brought out their chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to talk about 5 ways to reduce your risk of heart disease.

He started his presentation and that’s when I started to get mad.  Dr. Gupta, doing a segment before a national audience about information that could literally save people’s lives, took the opportunity to offer this sage advice to his viewers:

Five Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease, according to CNN:

1)    Laugh. Laughter is the best medicine and apparently when you do it you release unstressy feel good hormones that are beneficial to your health.

2)    Listen to Music. Ya know, it calms the savage beast and calm is better for your heart than not calm.

3)    Sleep.  Getting enough sleep is good for you. Duh.

4)    Quit Smoking.  Okay, I will admit that this one is actually substantive and should be included on any ‘help your heart’ list.

And last but not least…

5)    Get a puppy.  Or a kitten, your choice.  Studies show that snuggling with a pet can reduce your blood pressure, which is, of course, good for your heart.

By the end of the segment, I was furious. There I was in cardiac rehab, hooked into heart monitors and running my legs off on the NuStep, trying to undo damage done when my heart punked out on me and I nearly died.  I’m hoping beyond hope that I will be able to regain enough healthy muscle so more than 35% of the blood going into my heart gets pumped back out so it can circulate oxygen to my weakened limbs. And this joker is telling people to get a dog?.  WTF, CNN?

Talk about a missed opportunity.  People watch CNN.  People listen to CNN – especially to people in lab coats with lots of letters after their names.  This could have been a life-saving info kind of segment.  Who knows?  If I had seen something that explained what heart attack symptoms feel like in women, perhaps I would have gone to hospital 7 hours earlier than I did, when the pain first manifested.  Maybe the obstruction in my artery could have been removed then instead of remaining there another 19 hours, starving all the parts of my heart downstream of oxygen. Maybe I’d be able to fix a bowl of oatmeal for me and my husband without it taking so much out of me I need a nap.

Shame on you, CNN.  And shame on you, Dr. Gupta.  I’ve read your CV and by all accounts, you are a great doctor and an influential man. So how can you be okay with telling Joe Sixpack and Mary Housecoat, who depend on you for health info, that to reduce their risk of heart attack, they should put on some cool jams and tell each other jokes?

Grrrr.  Okay rant over.

/rant

Since you probably didn’t see any of this on CNN or your news program of choice, here’s some info that actually means something.  Please make sure you know what your risk factors are, the symptoms of a heart attack, and what to do if you think you’re having one.

• Here is information on risk factors for heart disease.

• Here is a brief interactive questionnaire that can help you identify your personal risk factors.

• Here is an entertaining 3 minute video that lists the symptoms of a heart attack in a humorous and easy to remember way.

• Here are the symptoms in a written list.

• Here is the Go Red website, which has a lot of other info and lists ways you can get involved in getting the word out about the #1 killer of women in the U.S.

And just for good measure, here is a handy infographic:

Take care of you, okay?