America celebrates fifth ‘Wear Red Day’

An annual event celebrated on the first Friday in February, National Wear Red Day is a day when women and men across America wear red to show their support for women's heart disease awareness. Heart disease is the leading killer among women with about 38 percent death rate.

Initiated in 2002, named as the Heart Truth campaign, Wear Red Day is sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in partnership with the Office on Women’s Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Heart Association, WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, and other groups committed to the health and well-being of women.

First lady Laura Bush, an ambassador for the National Institutes of Health's heart awareness program, The Heart Truth, said, “"With the many risk factors for heart disease, our greatest risk is ignorance. So I encourage every one of you to go home, pull out your favorite red dress, and tell every woman you know that heart disease doesn't care what you wear."

Heart attack is a disease state that occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted. The resulting oxygen shortage causes damage and potential death of heart tissue.

Chest pain, discomfort in other areas of the upper body, and shortness of breath, nausea, light-headedness or breaking out in a cold sweat are some of the early signs of a heart attack.

Mrs. Bush is scheduled to take part Friday in the fifth annual Red Dress Collection fashion show in New York. A part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, the event brings out celebrity models in red dresses from American designers.

Since its commencement five years ago, significant progress has been made in increasing awareness among women from 34 percent in 2000 to 55 percent in 2005.

source :www.themoneytimes.com
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