Heart disease is a leading cause of premature death for women in Canada and women still underestimate the threat to their health from heart disease. That is why WCH celebrates Heart Month in February to engage our community and raise awareness of the risk factors for developing or living with heart diseases.
Women’s College Hospital opened the first “Women-focused Cardiac rehabilitation and Primary Prevention program” in 1996. Cardiologist, Dr. Leonard Sternberg and Advanced Practice Nurse, Dr. Jennifer Price saw this need for women to access cardiac rehabilitation after a cardiac event and created a multidisciplinary team to treat and educate people diagnosed with heart disease or living with high risk of developing heart disease. Dr. Sternberg received the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Advocacy Award in 2016. Dr. Jennifer Price co-authored women-focused cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation international clinical practice guidelines.
Risk factors are conditions that might elevate your chances of developing heart disease. Traditional risk factors for all people include:
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Smoking
- High cholesterol
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Family history of heart disease
For women, some unique risk factors also include: a diagnosis of pregnancy related high blood pressure, or pregnancy related diabetes or pre-eclampsia. Women tend to become more prone to the disease around the menopause. Ethnicity and family background can strongly influence the presentation of heart disease as well.
What you can do:
Join us in wearing red on Tuesday, February 13 to support the Heart and Stroke foundation campaign, #HerHeartMatters. This initiative brings attention to the gender-based inequities experienced by heart disease and stroke patients: it’s the number one cause of premature death in Canadian women and half of all women who experience heart attacks have their symptoms go unrecognized.
Partake in our 29 days of heart activities for our WCH team to follow and keep their heart healthy!
