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Conference to relay healthy heart strategies
To raise awareness about the No. 1 health threat — heart disease — Hilton Head Regional Healthcare and the American Heart Association will host the 2009 Women’s Heart Health Conference from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 25 at Hilton Head Island High School.
The conference features cardiologist Dr. Ileana L. Piña as keynote speaker, free screenings and free educational sessions on a range of health topics.
The event is presented as part of Go Red for Women, the AHA national movement to increase awareness of heart disease and educate women about their risk of heart disease and stroke.
“Our Women’s Heart Health Conference is a great opportunity to reach out to women in our community and alert them to their personal risk factors for heart disease,” said Elizabeth Lamkin, president of Hilton Head Regional Healthcare. “By joining together we can raise awareness locally about heart disease and help lead women on the path to prevention.”
“We want women to mark their calendars for April 25 and take time to attend the conferences,” said Janice Malafronte, a longtime volunteer with the American Heart Association. “It’s important that we know how to take care of our heart and our families.”
Malafronte also helped to organize Heart & Soul, a local community initiative aimed at educating minorities about their heart health and has been involved with the Women’s Heart Health Conference since its inception. “We are seeing a disturbing trend of diabetes and heart-related complications among racial and ethnic populations, a problem we need to address promptly and directly,” she said. “We want women to have the tools and knowledge they need to prevent some health problems or to better deal with health issues they are faced with. That’s why this conference is so important.”
In addition to the educational sessions, women may participate in free heart health screenings for cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure.
Register for the conference at hiltonheadregional.com. To make an appointment, call (877) 582-2737
No. 1 Killer
Too few people realize that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of American women — and of men. Heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases claim the lives of over 480,000 women each year — about a death a minute. That’s more lives than are claimed by the next five causes of death combined and nearly twice as
many as claimed by all forms of cancer, including breast cancer.
