Heart disease is real! We're wearing RED to support the cause.

I hope you’re wearing RED today in support of increased awareness of heart disease among women – I am! As Fergie mentioned yesterday, last year we participated in the Go Red For Women campaign, along with our awesome friend, Joshilyn over at Faster Than Kudzu, and we had a blast. We were all faced with the stark reality that heart disease is real and very possible and also extremely preventable. We all took small steps to change our lifestyles during the 12-week period and after and we encourage you to get to know your numbers, make small changes in your eating habits and get active – if even for 10 minutes!

Do you know:

• Cardiovascular disease kills approximately 450,000 women each year, about one every minute.

• While 1 in 30 American women die of breast cancer, about 1 in 3 die from cardiovascular disease.

• More women die of cardiovascular disease than the next five causes of death combined, including all forms of cancer.

• Ninety percent of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease.

• Only 1 in 5 women believe that heart disease is her greatest health threat.

• Heart disease is largely preventable. In fact, 80 percent of cardiac events in women may be prevented if women make the right choices for their hearts, involving diet, exercise and abstinence from smoking.

Check out the GRFW site for more info and get in the know.

(P.S. I was inclined to write this entire post in red, because red is my favorite color AND I had a worthwhile reason to do so, but I figured you would hate me for it!)