There was a sea of red at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center on Friday. Women and men of all ages sported the color for Go Red for Women, a campaign that was designed by the American Heart Association in an effort to reduce heart disease and stroke in the female population.
At Southwest, a packed house gathered to hear Dr. Ali Homayuni, interventional cardiologist at the Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi. Homayuni said the AHA developed the Go Red program with a specific purpose.
“Women and heart disease is a passion that we’ve kind of developed as cardiologists over the last 10 years,” said Homayuni, who described heart disease as hardening of the arteries as a person ages.
“If you look at everybody in this room, and you look at the person next to you, unfortunately, one of the two of you will die of heart disease of some form.”
Heart disease is characterized by chest pain, chest pressure, someone who has had a heart attack, someone who has had an episode of sudden death and now has a defibrillator or pacemaker, hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, congestive heart failure, hardening of the arteries in the legs and stroke.
“Heart disease is an economic burden on the United States of America,” Homayuni said. “The best thing about it is that it’s preventable. We can prevent someone from having a heart attack or developing hypertension or having a stroke by having them take care of themselves properly and by us as health-care givers … taking care of them and keeping them heart healthy.”
Staying heart healthy involves many things, including improving access to health care, which improves health education, Homayuni said. The more educated people are about health issues — including heart attacks — the better a person’s chances of survival are.
The AHA’s program is designed to assist in that health education.
“Go Red is about women realizing that they can have heart disease and it’s as serious if not more serious than the risk of cancer …” he said. “If you take stroke and cardiovascular disease, you’re basically three times more likely to die of that than you are of lung cancer and five times more likely to die of that than you are of breast cancer. Young or old, heart disease is still the major cause of death in the United States of America.”
Homayuni said from 1979 to 2005, fewer men died of heart disease; more males stopped smoking during those years. As a result, heart disease rates dropped “tremendously.”
“What was concerning in 1990-1995, was that in the female population (deaths) actually went up. More people were dying of heart disease who were women,” he said. “And they couldn’t figure out why.
“ The reason why was a lot of different reasons. One was the perception of the medical community to women having heart disease. The second was the actual rise of tobacco use with younger women.”
Risk factors for the disease include obesity, smoking, high cholesterol, diabetes and age. Awareness has grown in the past 12 years, and Homayuni said there have been less women die of heart disease. But the ailment continues to be a risk to women’s lives and a financial burden on the country.
“It is something here that really is a danger in our society. Stroke. Hypertension. Dialysis,” Homayuni said. “This comes out of Medicare, this comes out of our tax dollars. It’s because they are preventable diseases that we don’t prevent.”
Preventing heart disease involves many things, including diet, exercise and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol. Patients should also take their medications and visit their doctors regularly. The cardiologist also recommended patients take 1 gram of fish oil a day, which is equal to one gel tablet and can be bought over the counter.
Symptoms of a heart attack for men include crushing chest pain and sweating and for women profound weakness, shortness of breath or nausea. Women usually show signs of heart disease 10 years later than men.
Above all, Homayuni said, if someone is feeling symptoms for 15 minutes or more, he or she should go to the emergency room immediately.
“Time is life,” the doctor said. “The faster you get to the hospital, the better your chances of surviving.”lives and a financial burden on the country.
“It is something here that really is a danger in our society. Stroke. Hypertension. Dialysis,” Homayuni said. “This comes out of Medicare, this comes out of our tax dollars. It’s because they are preventable diseases that we don’t prevent.”
Preventing heart disease involves many things, including diet, exercise and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol. Patients should also take their medications and visit their doctors regularly. The cardiologist also recommended patients take 1 gram of fish oil a day, which is equal to one gel tablet and can be bought over the counter.
Symptoms of a heart attack for men include crushing chest pain and sweating and for women profound weakness, shortness of breath or nausea. Women usually show signs of heart disease 10 years later than men.
Above all, Homayuni said, if someone is feeling symptoms for 15 minutes or more, he or she should go to the emergency room immediately.
“Time is life,” the doctor said. “The faster you get to the hospital, the better your chances of surviving.”
