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NEW YORK, Oct. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Heart disease is an ever-present threat in the family of television personality Joy Behar and her daughter Eve after Joy’s mom experienced a heart attack in her early fifties. That’s why the Behars, in partnership with the makers of Bayer^® Aspirin and WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, are launching Straight Talk: A Woman’s Guide to Heart Health to get women talking to each other and their doctors about heart disease and how to live ProHeart.

The guide, available in English and Spanish, can be found on the I am ProHeart Facebook page, www.facebook.com/iamproheart. Sharing or downloading the guide is the first step women can take toward living ProHeart. Each person who downloads the guide can enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win* a trip to New York City to spend the day with Joy Behar and have a heart-to-heart talk with her and a WomenHeart Scientific Advisory Council cardiologist, courtesy of Bayer.

Born from the personal experience of women of all ages and from all backgrounds, the guide gives women an insider’s look at what other women wish they knew before their heart attack experience, from the emotional toll it takes to how caregivers can support loved ones on the home front, as well as insights from medical experts on how to reduce the risk of a first heart attack – or a second or third one. This is especially important because heart disease is the leading killer of women and women are 1.5 times more likely than men to die in the first year following a heart attack.(i),(ii) It is aimed at women who have heart disease and those who don’t – yet. The goal is to empower women and give them the knowledge and confidence to become their own heart health advocates.

More than 20,000 heart patients belong to the WomenHeart community, a number that continues to grow each day. WomenHeart Champions – women heart disease survivors who are trained volunteer community educators, advocates, and support network leaders, form a “heels-on-the-ground” army to speak from the heart about what they have learned, and what they wish they’d known sooner. WomenHeart Champions are devoted to helping their sisters, mothers, daughters, friends and communities become more aware of the risks and symptoms of heart disease.

“There are more than 42 million women living with or are at risk for heart disease. They have families and friends who care about them, and who are at risk, too,” said Joy Behar. “It’s time for everybody to listen up and get serious about preventing heart disease and for women to become their own heart health advocates. We need to face the risks and take steps to prevent heart disease, starting with reading this guide and forwarding it to every woman we know.”

“We all need to see the connection between women’s hearts, homes and the world,” said Dr. Altagracia Chavez, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic. “Women are nurturers, but we can’t take care of our families or help out in our communities if we don’t first take care of our own health.”

Bayer and WomenHeart created the new guide in response to a clear need for women to know better how to prevent heart disease and, if they have it, how to take the best care of themselves to prevent a subsequent heart attack.

• Heart disease is the gravest health risk for women. In fact, 420,000 women die each year in the U.S. of cardiovascular disease.(iii)
• Women and men with heart disease often have different symptoms, are often treated differently and have different outcomes. In fact, 64 percent of women who died suddenly of heart disease had no previous symptoms; making early detection and correction of factors like high cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes critical.(ii)
• Anxiety or depression in the months following a heart attack is common.(iv) For women, psychological risk factors have been linked to behaviors that have a negative impact on cardiovascular health, such as non-adherence to treatment recommendations, lower levels of physical activity and unhealthy dietary habits.(ii) In fact, a recent study shows that patients who discontinued use of two cardiovascular treatments after hospitalization were at increased risk for hospitalization, death or emergency department visit.(v)
• In people who have had a heart attack, regular aspirin therapy, when directed by a doctor, has been shown to reduce second heart attacks by 30 percent.(vi) In addition, heart attack survivors on an aspirin regimen, who stop taking it, even for as little as 30 days, have a higher risk of having a second heart attack.(vii)

“I wish I had learned more about how to take care of my heart,” said Mildred Rodriguez, WomenHeart Champion. If she’d understood the importance of exercise and a good diet, she says, she might have avoided having a heart attack 12 years ago, at age 52. Now, with the support of her family she exercises, watches portion sizes and takes aspirin regularly, as directed by her doctor. “I’m very proud of myself,” she says. “I want to live a long time.”

“Because heart disease runs in our family, my mother and I have always looked out for each other’s health,” said Eve Behar. “Now, as a new mom, I’m even more aware of the need for families to pull together, face our risks and live well to prevent heart disease. This new guide can help women become empowered to prevent heart disease and take better care of themselves and their loved ones by talking to each other and starting conversations with their doctors.”

To download Straight Talk: A Woman’s Guide to Heart Health and enter the sweepstakes, visit the I am ProHeart Facebook page, www.facebook.com/iamproheart, and for additional heart health information, visit IAmProHeart.com.
SOURCE Bayer HealthCare

NEW YORK, March 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — The Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health has launched a major initiative to improve the cardiovascular health of African American and Afro-Caribbean women in Brooklyn, NY.  The initiative, Heart of a Woman, is a central component of the Institute’s community-based health programming in 2011 and is supported by a leadership grant of $190,000 from the Empire BlueCross BlueShield Foundation.

Carried out in partnership with customers and stylists in eight hair salons, Heart of a Woman will increase awareness of Black women’s risk of cardiovascular disease and how even simple changes in diet and exercise can reduce their risk.  Heart of a Woman will train salon stylists to serve as lay health advocates for their customers, offering fact-based information about heart health and encouragement.  The program will target the communities of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, East Flatbush and Flatbush.

“Cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of American women – and African American women are at greater risk than any other ethnic group,” said Mark Wagar, President and CEO, Empire BlueCross BlueShield. “The Arthur Ashe Institute is taking a highly innovative, people-to-people approach to help spread the word to women, so they can better protect themselves against the ravages of heart disease.”

In previous salon-based cardiovascular programs, the Institute found that 80 percent of salon customers did not identify red meats and fried foods as sources of cholesterol and 46 percent could not suggest increased exercise or ways to reduce cardiovascular health risks.

RICHMOND, Va., Feb. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Dizziness, nausea and achiness – no, these are not symptoms of the flu but signs of a heart attack in females. While heart attacks affect both men and women, the symptoms of a heart attack are surprisingly different between the genders. Virginia Health Information (VHI) this week released its Cardiac Care Report which provides consumers information comparing heart healthcare in Virginia. This year’s report reveals women undergoing open heart surgery continued a five year trend of higher than expected readmission rates.

February is “American Heart Month” – a time to raise awareness of cardiac health and focus on efforts to encourage Virginians to prevent cardiac disease. VHI’s Cardiac Care Report is a valuable tool for patients and caregivers that can be used to make more informed health care decisions.

The Cardiac Care Report is a free, online searchable tool that can be used to compare five years of mortality and readmission rates for 93 Virginia hospitals in the following categories of care:

• Medical Cardiology: Non-surgical therapy for heart disease such as angina, congestive heart failure and acute myocardial infarction (AMI)
• Invasive Cardiology: Surgeries include cardiac catheterization, cardiac pacemaker insertion, balloon angioplasty and placement of cardiac stents and
• Open Heart Surgery: Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and cardiac valve operations

The report also contains statewide summaries, which provide detail on heart care by age, race, payer and gender.

“Statewide, cardiac care patients with Medicare, Medicaid or commercial insurance coverage have mortality rates as you would expect,” said Michael Lundberg, Executive Director of VHI. “On the other hand, Medicare and Medicaid patients have 30-day readmission rates higher than expected. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that administers the Medicare program, has recognized the importance of reducing high readmission rates and will provide incentives for hospitals that do so.”

Practical medical advice that works in the “real world” may more effectively prevent cardiovascular disease in women than recommendations based only on findings in clinical research settings, according to the 2011 update to the American Heart Association’s cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines for women.

First published in 1999, the guidelines until now have been primarily based on findings observed in clinical research. That alone often doesn’t consider the personal and socioeconomic factors that can keep women from following medical advice and treatment.

“These recommendations underscore the fact that benefits of preventive measures seen day-to-day in doctors’ offices often fall short of those reported for patients in research settings,” said Lori Mosca, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., chair of the guidelines writing committee and a medical advisor for the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement. “Many women seen in provider practices are older, sicker, and experience more side effects than patients in research studies. Factors such as poverty, low literacy level, psychiatric illness, poor English skills, and vision and hearing problems can also challenge clinicians trying to improve their patients’ cardiovascular health.”

The 2011 update identifies barriers that hinder both patients and doctors from following guidelines, while outlining key strategies for addressing those obstacles.

“Awareness continues to be a key driver to optimal care,” said Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. “Cause initiatives such as Go Red for Women and provider compliance programs such as Get With The Guidelines® are strong components in our efforts to broaden awareness and improve adherence among patients and providers.”

She said getting a dialogue started between a woman and her doctor is a critical first step.

“If the doctor doesn’t ask the woman if she’s taking her medicine regularly, if she’s having any side effects or if she’s following recommended lifestyle behaviors, the problems may remain undetected,” she said. “Improving adherence to preventive medications and lifestyle behaviors is one of the best strategies we have to lower the burden of heart disease in women.”

To evaluate patient risk, the guidelines incorporate illnesses linked to higher risk of cardiovascular disease in women, including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes or pregnancy-induced hypertension. Mosca said women with a history of preeclampsia face double the risk of stroke, heart disease and dangerous clotting in veins during the five to 15 years after pregnancy. Essentially, having pregnancy complications can now be considered equivalent to having failed a stress test.

“These have not traditionally been top of mind as risk factors for heart disease,” she said. “But if your doctor doesn’t bring it up, you should ask if you’re at risk for heart disease because of pregnancy complications or other medical conditions you’ve experienced.”

The updated guidelines also emphasize the importance of recognizing racial and ethnic diversity and its impact on cardiovascular disease. For example, hypertension is a particular problem among African-American women and diabetes among Hispanic women.

Although putting clinical research into practical, everyday adherence can be challenging, solid scientific evidence is still the basis for many of the guidelines, Mosca said. Some commonly considered therapies for women are specifically noted in the guidelines as lacking strong clinical evidence in their effectiveness for preventing cardiovascular disease and, in fact, may be harmful to some women. Those include the use of hormone replacement therapy, antioxidants and folic acid.

The update includes depression screening as part of an overall evaluation of women for cardiovascular risk, because while treating depression has not been shown to directly improve cardiovascular health, depression might affect whether women follow their doctor’s advice.

Despite a growing body of clinical evidence to fight heart disease and stroke in women, more is needed, Mosca said. Coronary heart disease death rates in women dropped by two-thirds from 1980 to 2007, due to both effective treatment and risk factor reduction, according to the American Heart Association, but cardiovascular disease still kills about one woman every minute in the United States.

In future studies, researchers should look at interventions during specific times throughout a woman’s lifespan ― including puberty, pregnancy and menopause ― to identify risks and determine effective prevention opportunities during those critical times, Mosca said. More cost-effective analyses and clinical trial research with male- and female-specific results are also needed, especially regarding risks posed by preventive therapies.

“Now that science has shown the benefits are often similar for men and women, there is a need to understand if the risks are also similar and acceptable,” she said.

“These guidelines are a critical weapon in the war against heart disease, the leading killer of women,” Mosca said. “They are an important evolution in our understanding of women and heart disease. And I cannot stress personal awareness and education enough. Initiatives such as Go Red For Women give women access to the latest information and real-life solutions to lower their risk of heart disease.”

Other authors include Emelia J. Benjamin, M.D., Sc.M.; Kathy Berra, M.S.N., N.P.; Judy L. Bezanson, D.S.N., C.N.S.-M.S.; Rowena J. Dolor, M.D., M.H.S.; Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, M.D., Sc.M.; L. Kristin Newby, M.D., M.H.S.; Ileana L. Piña, M.D., M.P.H.; Véronique L. Roger, M.D., M.P.H.; Leslee J. Shaw, Ph.D.; and Dong Zhao, M.D., Ph.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Diet Coke and Heidi Klum joined forces on February 1 to raise awareness and funds for women’s heart health education and research.  February is American Heart Month, and for the fourth consecutive year, Diet Coke is partnering with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to support The Heart Truth® campaign. This year, Diet Coke has created a national game of “Capture the Flag,” inviting people to visit DietCoke.com/HeartTruth where they can capture flags with a click of the mouse to trigger a donation from Diet Coke to heart health programs.

Heidi Klum and Diet Coke launched the campaign yesterday at an all-star, first-of-its-kind “Capture the Flag” game in Los Angeles. Two teams faced off at the University of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA) Drake Stadium. The teams were playing to raise funds for two heart health organizations: UCLA Preventative Cardiology Program and the University of California, Davis Women’s Cardiovascular Medicine Program.

“Capture the Flag is such a fun game, so when Diet Coke asked me to join the team, I was in!” said Klum. “It’s simple for anyone to participate: go online, capture a flag, and you’ve raised money. Capture more flags. Raise more money.  It’s that easy.”

Chelsie Hightower, Natasha Bedingfield and Ryan Kwanten were also on the sidelines along with the Laker Girls to support the teams and the cause.

“Diet Coke is a passionate supporter of The Heart Truth® campaign. This year we’re offering people more ways than ever to participate.  We invite everyone to join us by going online to capture flags and help raise awareness and funding for heart health programs,” said William White, Group Director, Coke™ North America. “We’re dedicated to encouraging new generations of people to be active, stay extraordinary and become advocates for heart health.”

The Heart Truth® campaign has made great strides in raising awareness about the need for a healthy heart, but heart disease is still the number one killer among women. Together, Diet Coke and The Heart Truth® campaign will continue to wave a flag with the hope of motivating women to take action for heart health.

“Partnering with Diet Coke provides an opportunity to place The Heart Truth® message into the minds and hands of millions of women across the United States,” said Ann Taubenheim, Ph.D., M.S.N., Project Director for The Heart Truth® campaign. “The resources and support that Diet Coke has committed to The Heart Truth® help educate women about the seriousness of heart disease and the ways they can incorporate heart healthy habits into their lifestyles.”

The Heart Truth campaign’s activities inspire heart health action during Heart Month

On Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) The Heart Truth campaign will once again bring the Red Dress to life on the runway at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City, with the debut of the Red Dress Collection 2011. For the first time, the event will be held at Lincoln Center. More than 20 celebrity participants will display the power of the Red Dress, and encourage women to protect their heart health and take action to lower their risk for heart disease.

Heart disease awareness in women has doubled in the last 12 years, and the awareness gap between older and younger women is narrowing. Data also show that women are taking preventive actions. Women who know that heart disease is the leading cause of death are more likely to be physically active and try to lose excess weight.

“Women of all ages are paying attention and choosing to take charge of their heart health,” said Susan Shurin, M.D., acting director of the NHLBI, which has long been at the forefront of women’s heart disease research and the translation of that research into knowledge that directly reaches women. “Women in their 20s and 30s have the power to protect their hearts from later development of disease by adopting simple changes, such as eating well, being physically active, not smoking, and keeping a healthy weight.”

Although heart disease awareness is on the rise, one-third of women still underestimate their own risk for heart disease. Only 16 percent recognize heart disease as the greatest health problem facing women.

To help American women continue to improve their knowledge of heart disease and become further empowered to take action, the NHLBI and its partners will host a number of activities during American Heart Month as part of The Heart Truth campaign.

Therapy to prevent heart failure more effective in women than men

Never before has a therapy proven more beneficial for women than men in preventing heart disease – until now.

A new study, published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that women receive a significantly greater benefit – a 70 percent reduction in heart failure and a 72 percent reduction in death – from cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator (CRT-D) than men.

“In prior cardiac studies, men and women generally received similar benefit from preventive medical therapy,” said cardiologist Arthur J. Moss, M.D., professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center and lead author of the study. “Our finding was unexpected, but extremely important because this is the only heart treatment that is clearly better in women than men.”

Historically, heart disease has been dominated by its association with men. But, thanks to successful awareness campaigns in recent years, such as the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women initiative, women have started to take note of their risks and take action to protect their health.

On all fronts, women receiving CRT-D therapy to prevent heart failure progression had significantly better outcomes than men receiving the therapy. Reduction of heart failure in females was twice that of males – 70 percent versus 35 percent.

In women with mild heart failure, CRT-D therapy effectively prevented deterioration of the heart, otherwise known as cardiac remodeling, by preventing enlargement of the heart with more effective contraction of the heart.

Study authors investigated the reasons for the significantly better result in women than men. Women in the study were more likely to have non-ischemic heart disease, a disorder typically characterized by inflammatory scarring of the heart muscle, while men had a greater likelihood of ischemic heart disease – otherwise known as coronary artery disease – where narrowed arteries restrict the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. Additionally, more women had left bundle branch block, a condition that results in disorganized electrical activity throughout the heart.

Because left bundle branch block and non-ischemic heart disease lead to diffuse, as opposed to localized, heart problems, study authors reasoned women were more responsive to CRT-D therapy, a treatment that strengthens the overall mechanical pumping action of the heart and coordinates the heart’s electrical activity.

“It’s not that men did poorly in the trial, but rather, women had really fantastic results, likely due to they type of heart disease we see more commonly in women,” noted Moss.

The CRT-D device, developed by Boston Scientific, was originally approved to treat patients with severe heart failure. In September 2010, the Food and Drug Administration extended the approval of the Boston Scientific device to patients with mild heart failure to prevent progression to advanced heart failure. With the new indication, nearly 4 million more Americans are candidates for treatment with the CRT-D.

CRT-D therapy combines an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), which is designed to prevent sudden, rhythm-related cardiac death, with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), which improves heart function with a reduction in heart failure and associated symptoms.

The study is a sub-analysis of the MADIT-CRT trial that was published in 2009 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved 1,820 participants from 110 medical centers in the United States, Canada and Europe and compared the effectiveness of CRT-D versus ICD therapy in reducing heart failure and death during four and one-half years of follow-up. Twenty-five percent, or 453 of the study participants, were female.

Currently, 42 million American women are living with heart disease. It is the leading killer of women in the United States, each year claiming more women than men. In 2005, cardiovascular disease claimed the lives of more than 450,000 women, while all forms of cancer claimed the lives of approximately 265,000 women, according to the American Heart Association.

The study was a joint effort between Boston Scientific and the University of Rochester Medical Center, with the participation of patients from medical centers throughout the world. Aysha Arshad, M.D., and Jonathan Steinberg, M.D., from St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City are the major co-authors of the article. Moss holds no stock in any device company, has never been a member of any corporate speakers’ bureau, and since Dec. 1, 2008, has chosen not to accept honoraria from Boston Scientific for any professional activity.

More on Women and Heart Disease

BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) announced the 2011 Heart Truth® Community Action Program grant recipients.  Seven community organizations were chosen to receive grants totaling nearly $200,000, in support of women’s heart health initiatives.

The Heart Truth Community Action Program grants are awarded annually by FNIH as part of a public-private partnership with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), in support of The Heart Truth, to promote women’s heart health education and research. Funding for the 2011 grants has been made possible through the generous support of Foundation for NIH partners: Diet Coke, Swarovski, Pfizer, Simon Malls, Eyebobs, Clothes Off Our Back Foundation and proceeds from LIVE with Regis and Kelly’s 2010 “High Heel-a-thon” in Central Park.

The 2011 grant recipients include:

• Cardiology Associates Foundation (Arkansas; SE Missouri; Memphis, TN)
• Community Health Network Foundation (Green Lake County, WI)
• Covenant Health (East Tennessee)
• Hope Heart Institute (Western Washington State and Yakima Nation Reservation)
• SWAH Empowerment (North Central Georgia)
• Wheaton Franciscan – St. Joseph (Milwaukee, WI)
• YWCA Middle Rio Grande (New Mexico – Statewide)

“As we enter our fourth year of supporting The Heart Truth campaign, FNIH is proud to continue playing an important role in this initiative by raising funds, helping to spread awareness, and engaging communities,” said Dr. Scott Campbell, Executive Director and CEO of the Foundation for NIH. “By building relationships and securing support from our partners, FNIH has been able to award nearly $500,000 in grants to community organizations since 2009.”

The Heart Truth is a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). FNIH supports The Heart Truth campaign by extending the campaign’s message and raising funds to create programs that help fund research activities and benefit community organizations to develop, implement, and evaluate activities and programming to support improved heart health for women.

The Heart Truth Community Action Program aims to help communities encourage heart disease awareness and foster action, especially among women of color, women with low incomes, and women who live in rural areas. For more infor

Author Interview: Dr. Kami Banks

Clinical characteristics, vascular function, and inflammation in women with angina in the absence of coronary atherosclerosis the dallas heart study.

What are the main findings of the study?

Our study has several major findings.  First, we found the clinical syndrome of angina is not related to coronary atherosclerosis in women.  Second, African-American ethnicity, increased waist circumference and premature family history of myocardial infarction are independently associated with angina in women without coronary atherosclerosis.   Finally, measures of poor vascular health, including reduced aortic compliance and increased serum levels of cell adhesion molecules, were also related to angina in this population.

Clinical characteristics, vascular function, and inflammation in women with angina in the absence of coronary atherosclerosis the dallas heart study.

JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2011 Jan;4(1):65-73.
Banks K, Puttagunta D, Murphy S, Lo M, McGuire DK, de Lemos JA, Chang AY, Grundy SM, Khera A.

Read the rest of the Interview with Dr. Kami Bank as well as the abstract on Angina.com