Special Focus: What is the Heart Truth?
Right:  Women's Heart Center patient advocates, Jody Knack and Melodee Church stand behind first lady Laura Bush as she visits Chicago to create awareness for womens' heart issues and the Heart Truth Campaign.

Every woman needs to know about heart disease.

The Heart Truth is that heart disease is the #1 killer of American women. In fact, one in three women dies of heart disease. But heart disease also can lead to disability and a significantly decreased quality of life.

Unfortunately, most women don't know The Heart Truth. Only about a third know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women.

And The Heart Truth is that women don't take their risk of heart disease seriously—or personally. Women often fail to make the connection between risk factors, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and their own chance of developing heart disease.

Goal of the Campaign
To make women more aware of the danger of heart disease, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and partner organizations are sponsoring a national campaign called The Heart Truth. The campaign's goal is to give women a personal and urgent wake-up call about their risk of heart disease.

Who Are We Trying to Reach?
The campaign is especially aimed at women ages 40 to 60, the time when a woman's risk of heart disease starts to rise. But its messages are also important for younger women, since heart disease develops gradually and can start at a young age—even in the teenage years. Older women have an interest too—it's never too late to take action to prevent and control the risk factors for heart disease. Even those who have heart disease can improve their heart health and quality of life.

The Red Dress Tack Pin
The primary goal of The Heart Truth campaign is to raise awareness that heart disease is the #1 killer of women. To support this goal, The Heart Truth campaign launched the Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease in February 2003. The Red Dress Tack Pin symbolizes the message that "heart disease doesn't care what you wear, it's not just a man's disease." Features a delicate heart accent on red enamel. Approximately 3/4" high.

To order online, click here.

Please call the NHLBI Health Information Center at (301) 592-8573 for bulk order pricing.

For more information about Heart Truth, please click here.

Special Focus Section Archives
Women & Heart Disease
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