It's not unusual to overhear men—at a bar, over breakfast at the local diner, at a neighborhood potluck—talking about their hearts. At mid-life and later, men frequently have stories to share about their symptoms, their heart attack crisis, their new diet and exercise routine, their bypass, their rehab.

Maybe because men tend not to engage in the kind of self-care and preventive regimens that women do, the medical establishment has long targeted men for education. Men are taught what a heart attack is likely to feel like, the importance of immediate treatment, the crucial need for comprehensive rehabilitation and then big lifestyle changes.

Women, though, have been chronically ignored when it comes to their hearts. Study after study show that women's heart symptoms are vastly different from men's but they don't know this; that physicians dismiss or minimize their attention to women's heart complaints; that even the care provided in a crisis is not as aggressive as for men.

That's all bad news.

The good news is that this situation is slowly changing, thanks in part to organizations like WomenHeart, The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. WomenHeart champions prevention and early detection, accurate diagnosis, and proper treatment of women's heart disease.

The organization was founded in 1999 by three women in different areas of the country, all with heart disease, all misdiagnosed, all of whom experienced heart attacks while in their 40s. In addition to being faced with many obstacles, including misdiagnosis and social isolation, they were each amazed at how little information about or services for women with heart disease were available and how the issue seemed invisible within the women's health community.

Now in its 10th year, WomenHeart has:

• Garnered a membership of thousands of women living with and at risk for heart disease, friends and family, health care professionals, and media.
  
• Developed the only national network of patient support groups across the country, now in 27 states, with a group in the Kansas City metro.
  
• Launched an online support community to connect women across the country and provide peer-to-peer support.
  
• Trained 518 female heart disease survivors as community educators.
  
• Published a report outlining the top 10 unanswered questions regarding women's heart health.
  
• Hosted four Advocacy Institute conferences to train women living with heart disease to be public policy advocates and form the basis of a grassroots policy movement.
  
• Crafted the Red Bag of Courage program, placing educational information on heart disease directly into the hands of hundreds of thousands of women living with or at risk for heart disease.
  
• Advocated for the HEART for Women Act, resulting in its passing the House of Representatives in fall 2010.

Lots more about the organization is available online at www.WomenHeart.org. But if you'd like education and support locally, the person to contact is Cathy Porter. Porter coordinates a local WomenHeart chapter with two primary projects: a "heartscarves-and-information" campaign and a support group.

Support
The local support group is open to all women who are living with heart disease, providing an opportunity for women to talk with others who have had similar experiences.

The group meets 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. the first Monday of the month, rotating among local hospitals. Meetings usually include an educational program, and sometimes a party or dinner occurs. The topic of the October meeting is CPR; in November, the women will hear from local paramedics.

Red scarves
The "heartscarves" project has been in the works nationally for four years. It started in California, and Kansas City is the fourth area to adopt the program. The local women coordinate with cardiac rehab units of hospitals—24 in all—providing bags loaded with heart-related goodies. The bags are given to women at their first rehabilitation consultation after a heart incident.

"The bags are packed with information," Porter said. "Coupons, samples, and resources; information about heart health, risk factors, diabetes, and living well with heart disease; a bookmark with heart symptoms on it; notices about resources like the WomenHeart online newsletter, "Heart to Heart," and its online community with blogs.

Tucked inside each bag is a bright red knitted or crocheted scarf—red, the color of women's heart awareness. And the local women need volunteers who will knit or crochet a few scarves.

"The purpose of the scarf, made by a caring local person, is to remind women with heart disease that they are not alone and that they need not be afraid," said Porter.

So far, the local group has been responsible for 3,600 red scarves, made by men and women throughout the metro who have at least basic skills and are willing to purchase their own red yarn.

"We get so many scarves donated, sometimes directly to hospitals, and often we don't know where they come from," said Porter. "This is a good opportunity for us to offer a big thank-you to all the people out there making the scarves for us!"

If you are interested in the women's heart support group or in helping to make red scarves, contact Porter: call 913-219-8385 or e-mail overlandparkwomenheart@yahoo.com.

Women: Do you know your numbers?

Here's where your vital statistics should be to indicate heart health:

Total cholesterol <200 mg/dL

LDL ("bad") cholesterol

• Optimal: <100 mg/dL
  Near optimal/above optimal: 100-129 mg/dL
  Borderline high: 130-159 mg/dL
  High: 160-189 mg/dL
  Very high: 190 mg/dL and above
  

HDL ("good") cholesterol 50 mg/dL or higher

Triglycerides <150 mg/dL

Blood pressure <120/80 mmHg

Fasting glucose <100 mg/dL

Body mass index (BMI) <25

Waist circumference <35 inches

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