Blog
Inequities in Health Outcomes for Women of Color
You may be familiar with the effects of factors like age and gender on people’s health. But did you know that race and ethnicity can play a significant role in health outcomes? First, people of certain ethnicities experience disproportionately higher rates of certain...
The Link Between Mental Health and Heart Disease
Multiple studies have shown a direct link between heart disease and mental health conditions like depression. In fact, 20% to 40% of patients who’ve gone through a major heart event meet the criteria for major depressive disorder. The link goes both ways — emotional...
Women and Heart Disease
Even in 2022, despite years of women's health advocacy, women's health issues are often overlooked or dismissed. Heart disease, for example, is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, yet women are often dismissed by doctors when they bring up their...
Making the Case for Women’s Health Research
While they may not have been able to traverse of the halls of Congress in person, WomenHeart Champions, Board and Scientific Advisory Council members nonetheless brought their voices to Washington. Throughout the day on March 2, nearly 40 advocates held approximately...
Thriving with Heart Disease
In the immediate aftermath of a heart attack or a heart disease diagnose, most women focus on surviving. They want to understand what happened and figure out how to get well. Only once they have had time to process this life-changing event do they start focusing on...
Offices on Women’s Health
We’ve come a long way in our evolution of defining “women’s health” over the last two decades. No longer are we limited to our reproductive organs, but women’s health is starting to be understood in a more wholistic way, as health across the lifespan. According to the...
The Link Between Heart Disease and Diabetes
Porothea was 46 years old and living with diabetes when she had a heart attack and stroke. Today she balances being a grandmother and health care worker with managing diabetes and heart failure. She’s also a WomenHeart Champion and encourages other women to know their...
Why Your Heart Matters Right Now
We have been trying hard to survive a pandemic in the past 16 months. For some of us, it has felt like a full-time job, and many have ignored their heart as a result of everything else. So many people have put off health care because it has not been the priority since...
Taking Stock of Heart Health Policy
If it wasn’t already high on the legislative agenda, health policy certainly took the spotlight in the last year and a half as the world battled a pandemic and elected officials worked to respond. WomenHeart has worked to capitalize on the moment to advocate for...
WomenHeart Stands with the AAPI Community
In the past weeks, we have witnessed the tragic murders of innocent people in Atlanta, most of whom were Asian women. Sadly, this attack comes amidst an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans over the past year. Combined with the extreme challenges of the...
Heart Valve Disease – Why We Under-Diagnose and Under-Treat Women
The prevalence of heart valve disease is rising. Yet, women – and especially women of color – are more likely than men to go undiagnosed, and therefore have lower rates of referral, specialist visits and treatment. In 2020, WomenHeart engaged Dr. Rachel Bond and NHA...
An End of Year Message
Before we breathe a deep sigh of relief as we put 2020 behind us, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this year for the WomenHeart family - a year marked by adversity and redeemed by resilience and grace. I don't want to mince words - for far too many of us, 2020...