Understand your enemy!

October is breast cancer awareness. Now, this is NOT to steal any thunder from that worthy cause. Women, we need to be aware of that threat and schedule your mammograms every year once you reach the age of 40. One in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Women with a high risk for breast cancer should schedule them once a year at even younger ages. I think as women, we have gotten better about preventive action when it comes to breast cancer because we are good about taking care of the parts of our body we can see. But what about what's inside? It's critical to care about heart disease. Why is heart disease the number 1 killer of women and men in the U.S.? One reason is undeniably a lack of commitment to a heart-healthy lifestyle. Your lifestyle is not only your best defense against heart disease and stroke, it’s also YOUR responsibility. Here are some sobering statistics about women and heart disease:

**Only 13% of women view heart disease as a health threat, even though it’s women's No. 1 killer.

**Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills over 480,000 women a year, about one per minute.

**One in three adult females and males in the United States suffers from a form of CVD.

**CVD claims more lives than the next four most common causes of death combined.
On average, an American dies of CVD every 35 seconds.

**Coronary heart disease is the No. 1 single killer of women over age 25.

**64% of women who died suddenly of coronary heart disease had no previous symptoms.

**One in 2.6 female deaths are from CVD, compared with one in 30 from breast cancer.
Heart disease rates in post-menopausal women are two to three times higher than in pre-menopausal women of the same age.

**Stroke is the #3 cause of death for American women, and is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability.

**Stroke kills more women than men. In 2003, females represented 61% of stroke deaths.

Heart disease is usually gradual and develops over time but women need to understand that heart disease is a "NOW" problem, and that "later" may be too late. Among women aged 25 to 34 years, a key audience for prevention messages, nearly two-thirds believed cancer was their greatest health threat and just 4% regarded heart disease as a danger. Half of these women will die of heart disease but yet their priorities lie elsewhere. Women......you make sure you schedule your mammograms and your yearly GYN exams, but don't take your heart for granted! Care for your heart, take action......get off the couch, get a heart checkup, know your numbers, know your family history and know your risks for heart disease, do something for yourself and the people you love! There are risk factors that only YOU can do something about. Don't wait until you have symptoms or problems, later may be to late. I wish I had done that. Maybe my heart condition would not have progressed to where it is now, but I'll never know. Do it NOW! I love the Nike slogan and I use it quite frequently so JUST DO IT!