Go Red For Women - Friday, February 7

Red is a power color. Wearing red empowers you throughout the entire day. Friday is National Wear Red Day celebrating the 11th anniversary of the American Heart Association's Go Red Day for women. I am an advocate because I am the child and grandchild of women taken by heart attacks. Funny thing is that as a society we have a pink month and we talk about cancer all year, but some people just have no clue heart attacks are the number ONE killer of women. It sounds surreal. As I get older I look at the young age of 48 when a heart attack took my mother. She never had a heart problem so how could she pass of a heart attack? In an insant lives were forever changed because this horrible thing got her. We can argue that we can take better care of our bodies as women and we can exercise so many minutes a week, but when it comes down to the details, heart disease doesn't care. I am young, work out, eat healthy and go to the doctor yearly, but I already fight higher cholesterol. Maybe there was no way to fight that day and make it not happen, but maybe if we had the same awareness 13 years ago we could have prevented it. I will never know. Wearing red begs people to ask questions and raises the "red" flags. I still do not understand how heart attacks can be the cause of death for women as I don't hear of that each day. My grandmothers were older so we say it was a heart attack, but it could just as easily been any other natural cause. It's this weird, silent killer that lurks in the darkness. Some people say it's easier to go in an insant. Some people say it's like being run over by a truck and trying to walk away. I fight with red and I hold my mother's memory high as we all walk into the battle against heart disease. Go red!