Guests donned their best red dresses, sweaters, socks and ties at the 20th annual Women's Heart Care Forum hosted by the UC Davis Women's Cardiovascular Medicine Program.
The forum educated women community leaders about how to share key information — such as preventing heart disease — with the communities they serve, friends and family.
"Our hope for the forum is participants will learn and spread the word that heart disease is the leading killer of women, and that it is largely preventable through heart-healthy lifestyles," said UC Davis Health cardiologist Amparo C. Villablanca told about 150 people in the audience.
Villablanca is founder and director of the program and the Frances Lazda Endowed Chair in Women's Cardiovascular Medicine.
"Cardiovascular disease kills more women than all forms of cancer combined and yet less than half of women recognize that cardiovascular disease is their greatest health threat," she said.
Indeed, cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 cause of death among women in the United States, according to the American Heart Association. Most cardiac events can be prevented through education and lifestyle changes, such as moving more, eating smart and managing blood pressure.
"Our hope for the forum is participants will learn and spread the word that heart disease is the leading killer of women, and that it is largely preventable through heart-healthy lifestyles."-Amparo C. Villablanca
Education and awareness
The forum was held at a Sacramento community center on National Wear Red Day, which is annually celebrated on the first Friday in February to highlight the impact of heart disease on women.
Attendees included LeShelle May, the wife of UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May, and a representative from Congresswoman Doris Matsui's office. Everyone had the opportunity to participate in a "Heart-health Exploratorium" — a variety of learning stations where they could:
- Practice hands-only CPR to help save the life of someone who collapses and needs immediate help
- Test their heart health smarts
- Discover new technologies for monitoring and diagnosing heart disease
- Find out their blood pressure, BMI and waist circumference
- Pin a red heart to a dress and write a message with their heart health intention for this year
Each station was staffed with volunteers who were all UC Davis nurses and undergraduate pre health students.
Additionally, participants were treated to presentations from leading experts with UC Davis Health: Villablanca on the heart-brain connection for cardiovascular disease prevention; Kim Hardin, professor of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, on the connection between sleep and heart health; and Seleda Williams, volunteer clinical professor Public Health and Preventive Medicine, on "Let's Get Moving for Heart Health."
"We want every woman to put their heart health first," said Villablanca. "By building awareness of the importance of prevention among women of all ages and dispelling the myth that women are immune to heart disease, we can be even more successful in saving lives."
A pioneer in women's cardiovascular care
Established in 1994, the UC Davis Women's Cardiovascular Medicine Program was the first of its kind in the nation dedicated to female-focused heart disease care, research, education and community outreach.
The program offers personalized, integrated and women-centered care ranging from prevention to advanced treatments. It provides health equity-focused and guidelines-directed care in a specialty clinic for cardiac conditions that are unique to women, present differently in women, or occur more often in women. These include:
- Spontaneous coronary artery dissection
- Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and Takotsubo's (stress) cardiomyopathy
- Angina syndromes with non-obstructed coronary arteries and Prinzmetal's angina
- Peripartum cardiomyopathy
- Cardiovascular risk from pregnancy associated gestational hypertension, diabetes, and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia
- Arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation
- Valvular heart disease, including mitral valve prolapse
- Dysautonomias, including POTS syndrome
Villablanca has led the program since its inception. She strives to emphasize the importance of women's heart health among patients, health care providers and policymakers.
"Seeing so many women, and also men, come together united in wearing red and committed to learning and educating about heart disease is empowering and motivating" Villablanca shared during the event.
