National Wear Red Day

Today is National Wear Red Day. In 2003, First Lady Laura Bush kicked off the national awareness campaign.

The leading cause of death in women is heart attack. Surprised? We typically read that it is a killer for men. In the last few years more awareness has been focused on the effects of heart disease on women.

More than 1 million Americans have heart attacks every year, and almost half die. Men have more than women do, but the gap is closing. From 1988 to 2004, attacks among women ages 35 to 54 spiked 42%

The HEART for Women Act is pending in the Senate. It passed in the House on a strong bi-partisan basis.

The HEART for Women Act seeks to change this trend by raising awareness among women and their health care providers about the prevalence, warning signs and treatment of heart disease in women. It also aims to provide gender and race-specific information for clinicians and researchers, as well as improve screening for low-income women at risk for heart disease and stroke.

The HEART for Women Act had tremendous bipartisan support in the last Congress, with a majority of the House and 48 Senators as co-sponsors, and it passed the House by a 418-4 vote.

The bill is in the Senate and not yet up for final vote.