Healthy Women Today Newsletter - February 2012

What Women Want to Know

Highlights from the womenshealth.gov information and referral center

A woman wrote to us concerned about numbness and tingling she felt in her face. The tingling came on suddenly and without warning. It began at night and she still felt it when she woke up the next morning. She wondered if she could be having a stroke. We encouraged her to call 911 immediately. We strongly suggested she follow up with her doctor about her concerns. We also sent her information to follow up on after calling 911.

• For Your Heart
• Stroke Fact Sheet
• Know Stroke. Know the Signs. Act in Time.
• Age Page: Stroke
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, HHS

Women of Color Have More Risk Factors for Heart Disease

African American women are nearly 40 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than white women, according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics. Women of color are also more likely to have multiple risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. But there are things women can do to identify a heart attack and to survive one.

Learn more about how to survive a heart attack.

Make the Call. Don’t Miss a Beat.

The Make the Call. Don't Miss a Beat. campaign is a national public education campaign that aims to educate, engage, and empower women and their families to learn the seven most common symptoms of a heart attack and encourage them to call 911 as soon as those symptoms arise. A woman suffers a heart attack every 90 seconds in the United States. Yet, according to a 2009 survey from the American Heart Association, only half of women said they would call 911 if they thought they were having a heart attack. Few were aware of the most common heart attack symptoms. The campaign, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health, encourages woman to make the call to 911 immediately if they experience heart attack symptoms.

Learn more about heart attack symptoms in women.

Screening Tests for Women

Getting important screening tests and vaccines can save your life. But it can be hard to know which tests are necessary for you at different times in your life. Womenshealth.gov has pulled important screening tests together in an easy-to-read chart that is also printable!

Check out the latest screening tests available on womenshealth.gov

Healthy Recipes for a Healthy Life

Delicious heart healthy recipes are as good for your heart as they are for your taste buds! Staying healthy can be a challenge, but lifestyle changes like eating healthfully and being physically active can help lower your risk for heart disease and other conditions. The Keep the Beat Recipes: Deliciously Healthy Eating website features more than 100 recipes created for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.

• Baked Salmon Dijon
• Heavenly Chicken with Angel Hair Pasta
• Quick Beef Casserole
• 20-Minute Chicken Creole
• Lentils with Brown Rice and Kale

Check out more recipes from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute!

Health News Headlines

• Flu Shots for Pregnant Moms May Protect Babies
• Is Avoiding Gluten in Foods Always Necessary?
• Exercise Can Build Young Adults' Bones, Study Finds
• Health Tip: Take Care of Your Skin
• Is Grief an Illness? The Debate Heats Up

Get more news.

Quick Health Data Online Monthly Spotlight

Every month Quick Health Data Online highlights topics of interest and relevant data available on their website. February's spotlight is on heart health.