princeton — Heart disease is common across the region, so a local hospital took time Thursday for people to wear red, raise awareness about the symptoms of heart problems and promote lifestyles for maintaining a healthy heart.
WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital celebrated a Go Red event to raise awareness of heart health. February is American Heart Month. Women face unique heart disease risks because of differences in hormones and anatomy. By wearing red, employees and community members show their support for cardiovascular health and reinforce the importance of early detection and healthy lifestyle choices.
“We’re very excited to be able to do this again,” said Karen Bowling, the hospital’s president and CEO. “As you know, heart disease is very prevalent in our state and certainly in southern West Virginia, so it is important to bring awareness to heart disease. This Wear Red movement was actually started in 2004 by the American Heart Association and it’s been observed since then once a year in February and we do that because at the time heart disease was not well recognized.”
Hospital employees wore red to mark American Heart Month.
“The goal here really is highlighting heart health and also about getting a regular checkup by seeing your primary care provider, that you’re aware of some of the things that are important that are associated with heart disease,” Bowling said.
Hearts are complex organs and there can be a variety of ailments that can impact them, she said.
“No matter what you’re diagnosis might be, you need to be in contact with your primary care provider and getting your yearly exam, but also seeing a cardiologist when it’s important,” Bowling said.
The hospital’s Go RED event also raised awareness about women’s heart health. Symptoms of heart disease and heart attack can also present differently in women.
“Women can have more atypical symptoms than men and also diabetes, particularly uncontrolled diabetics, can have atypical symptoms: perhaps only some pain in the throat, some jaw pain, maybe classic when you think of left-sided chest pain, sternal chest pain, it may be your right side, it may be your right shoulder or abdominal pain,” said Dr. Stephen Ward, MD, director of interventional cardiologist and director of cardiology at Princeton Community. “You don’t want people to be alarmed every time you develop a pain anywhere between here and here (from chin to midsection) but frankly it could be.”
The concerning things for people are particularly when they notice an increasing frequency and severity of symptoms, he said.
“That’s a red flag, so if it’s coming on with less exertion or each time it comes on it’s more severe and lasting longer, it could slower to resolve, those could be red flags and you need to get that checked out ASAP,” Ward said.
“In this range kind of from your mouth to your belly button where if you’re having discomfort, particularly with exertion, it can be a red flag for heart disease,” he said.
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