By Staff
We join the American Heart Association in applauding Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) as she is co-sponsoring a bill which could help reduce deaths in women in Michigan.
The number one killers of American women are heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.
Her legislation, the HEART for Women Act, would improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these diseases in women by education. Not only do the women themselves need to learn available treatment options and symptoms. Health care providers also need to receive the knowledge needed to reduce disabilities and death.
According to the local chairman of the Southwestern Michigan Go Red for Women luncheon, Jill Eldred, who is also with the Borgess Health Alliance, the bill will help “thousands of women in Michigan live longer and healthier lives by ensuring they receive the most aggressive and effective treatment for heart disease and stroke.”
The American Heart Association has said the HEART for Women Act would authorize an outreach program with the goal of raising awareness; “tighten Food and Drug Administration requirements for reporting gender-based data about new and experimental medicines and devices and expand cost-effective screening programs for low-income, uninsured women at risk for heart disease and stroke.”
Just in Michigan, heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases claim the lives of approximately 15,000 women each year. Yet, fewer than one in five physicians knew that more women than men die from these diseases. The rate for men is declining, while that for women continues to rise, especially for minority women.
Co-sponsors for the bill include Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Arkansas) and Representatives Lois Capps (D-California) and Barbara Cubin (R-Wyoming).