March 2006

"Women need to stop caring for all the members of their families for a few minutes and start caring for themselves. They need to know their risk factors for heart disease and take steps to reduce future risk. Heart disease kills women five times more than any cancer in the U.S."
-- Mariell Jessup, MD
Medical Director, Heart Failure & Transplant Program
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

"I often talk to women who insist that their husbands get evaluated, but they don’t apply the same standards to themselves. When having a heart attack, women delay going to a hospital more than three hours longer than men do. Women need to get to the emergency room quickly so that their symptoms can be evaluated promptly.

"If I could tell my female patients one thing, it would be to stop smoking! The only young women I’ve seen with heart attacks are smokers."
-- Susan Wiegers, MD
Director, Clinical Echocardiography Laboratory
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

"Women don't realize how important heart disease is to their own health. There's a major disconnect between what women know about heart disease and what they actually do to prevent it. They don't pay attention to their symptoms or take preventive measures. Why aren't women talking about heart disease with their primary care physicians? They are talking about breast cancer.

"Women are starting to understand that heart disease is important but they still aren't connecting it to themselves and taking the steps to prevent it. Think about your risk factors and take care of them before you end up in a cardiologist's office."
--Ruchira Glaser, MD
Interventional Cardiologist
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

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