Go Red for Women is Friday

February is Heart Disease Awareness Month and it is time to wear red

COLUMBIA SC (WOLO) — Heart disease is the number one killer of woman across the world, making up more deaths attributing to more than all types of cancer combined, and kills one woman every minute.  Heart disease can be a wide variety of medical issues, and very often manifests itself with a heart attack.

According to American Heart Association’s Catherine Ramsey, small lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of a heart attack by nearly 80%, including better nutrition and diet, exercise, and monitoring cholesterol.

February is heart disease awareness month, which means annual events created to educate and work to prevent heart attacks and other cardiovascular issues.  Ramsey said that Friday February 5th is Go Red for Woman Day, where everyone is encouraged to wear red.

In the Midlands, the AHA is spearheading several initiatives, according to Ramsay, including:

• Building and fostering supportive community partnerships
• Working with Harvest Hope food pantries in Richland and Kershaw counties to implement nutrition nudges, an evidence-based program that helps food pantry patrons make the healthy choice the easy choice. The AHA is also working with them to align their food pantry guidelines with national standards for charitable food organizations.
• To address hypertension, the AHA is partnering with local healthcare organizations and clinics to implement quality improvement activities to address measuring blood pressure accurately and improving hypertension control rates among their patient populations. This includes working with health systems to establish SMBP programs which include loaner programs to encourage patients to monitor their blood pressure outside of the clinical setting.
• Engaging faith-based organizations throughout the Midlands to ensure heart health is a focus among congregations in the Midland’s.

For more information check out www.aha.org.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tyler Ryan is an award winning television and radio personality, writer, investigative journalist, and professional emcee.  He appears daily on ABC Columbia’s Good Morning Columbia, as well as the radio stations in the iHeart Media Network.  Tyler also regularly appears as a criminal expert and journalist on regional and national crime based programs.  You can contact him directly via EMAIL Or on the socials: Tyler’s Instagram  // Tyler’s Facebook