Tag: Annie Neimand

Women’s heart disease: is it time to hang up the Red Dress?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 20 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters 

We were driving home around dusk when I noticed that the fountain at our beautiful provincial legislature buildings here in downtown Victoria was illuminated in bright purple light. I immediately guessed that the lights must be part of some kind of awareness-raising campaign – but awareness of what? I asked my friends in the car, but none of us knew why the fountain was now purple.

So I looked up “landmarks lit up with purple”.  I learned that lighting a landmark in purple raises awareness of pancreatic cancer – but that’s not all.  It’s also the colour that’s supposed to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s Disease, epilepsy, ADHD, domestic violence, lupus, testicular cancer, Crohn’s Disease – and probably many other such causes.
.
So how does seeing a PURPLE fountain really help to raise my awareness about anything?

Continue reading “Women’s heart disease: is it time to hang up the Red Dress?” →

Weird facts about women and heart disease

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

Every February is Heart Month – when facts and stats about heart disease flood our screens. But Heart Month facts and stats are so pre-COVID – when we also learned the truly discouraging results of the latest American Heart Association (AHA)’s national survey.  This survey found that women’s awareness of heart disease actually DECLINED over the previous decade – despite all the inspiring Red Dress fashion shows/awareness-raising/Go-Red-for-Women campaign efforts out there. So instead of repeating more scary statistics as if I hadn’t read that survey’s results, this time I’m simply offering some weird stuff I’ve learned over the years about women and heart disease:    .             Continue reading “Weird facts about women and heart disease” →

The weirdest stuff I’ve learned about women’s heart disease

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

You know it’s Heart Month when scary facts about the dangers of heart disease start flooding our screens. But that kind of Heart Month messaging is so pre-COVID – and before we learned the shocking results of the American Heart Association’s national survey.  This survey found that women’s awareness of heart disease has actually declined over the past decade – NOT improved at all! despite all the inspiring Red Dress-awareness-raising-Go-Red-for-Women campaign efforts out there.  

So instead of repeating more scary statistics as if I hadn’t read that survey’s results,  I’m once again simply offering some weird stuff I’ve learned over the years about women and heart disease:    .         .     Continue reading “The weirdest stuff I’ve learned about women’s heart disease” →

When a red dress just isn’t enough to raise awareness

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

“A decade of lost ground“  is how the official commentary from the American Heart Association bluntly described the stunningly awful results of its own 2019 National Survey on women’s heart disease awareness reported last month. I wrote about my own stunned reaction to this survey in Women’s Heart Disease: an Awareness Campaign Fail?

The results were astonishing.  They suggested that women not only had a low awareness of even the most basic facts about heart disease – the #1 killer of women worldwide – but awareness levels were significantly lower than an AHA awareness survey had found 10 years earlier.    .        .    .    .   Continue reading “When a red dress just isn’t enough to raise awareness” →