Heart Association Wants Us to See Red
February 03, 2012
Seeing red? We certainly hope so.
Today is the American Heart Association’s National Wear Red Day, when women — and men and children — are asked to wear red to raise awareness that heart disease is the number one cause of death among American women.
Smoking is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and women who smoke are twice as likely to suffer a heart attack as non-smoking women. What’s more, women smokers appear to have a higher relative risk of developing heart disease than do men who smoke, though the reasons for the difference aren’t yet known.
Smoking also increases the risk of heart attacks among women who use oral contraceptives — these women are 40 times more likely to have a heart attack than women who neither smoke nor use birth control.
The tobacco industry has long targeted women and girls with marketing that make smoking look glamorous, sexy and empowering, and appeal to women’s concerns about their weight and appearance. The result has been an epidemic of heart and lung disease among women.
So get your red on! Give women smokers the support they need to quit, and fight back against the tobacco industry’s deadly deceptions.
