THE HEART TRUTH ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF ITS ROAD SHOW
Original Red Dress Collection to Carry Heart Health
Wake-up Call to Women in Five Cities
Monday, February 2, 2004 – The National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), one of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), announced at an American
Heart Month program in Washington D.C., its plans
for a traveling exhibit on heart health. From March
through April 2004, The Heart Truth Road
Show, sponsored by NHLBI and presented by Johnson
& Johnson, will bring important information to
women across the United States to urge them to take
their heart health seriously and personally.
Complete with free risk factor screenings and educational
materials, the traveling exhibit will feature a stunning
display of dresses from The Heart Truth’s
Original Red Dress Collection 2003—including
designs from Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Oscar de la
Renta, and Calvin Klein. The Road Show will visit
shopping malls in the following five cities: Chicago,
Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, and San Diego.
The Heart Truth’s Red Dress is the national
symbol for women and heart disease awareness. It is
a red alert that heart disease is the #1 killer of
women—and an urgent reminder to every woman
to care for her heart.
Research shows that women are more worried about cancer
than heart disease – especially breast cancer.
According to a survey commissioned by the National
Council on the Aging, only 9 percent of women ages
45 to 64 name heart disease as the condition they
most fear – while 61 percent name breast cancer.
Yet, heart disease, which includes coronary artery
disease, congestive heart failure, angina, and other
conditions, is the leading cause of death in American
women, accounting for 366,000 deaths in 2000.
“The Heart Truth Road Show takes these
important messages about heart health
directly to women in local communities so they can
learn about their personal risk
factors for heart disease -- and understand that heart
disease is a woman's #1 health threat," said
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.
“We want to encourage every woman to talk to
her doctor about her risks for heart disease and to
start taking action to lead a heart healthy life,”
said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.
Johnson & Johnson is the presenting sponsor of
The Heart Truth Road Show. The Heart
Truth Road Show community partners include: American
College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association,
the Office on Women’s Health (Department of
Health and Human Services), and WomenHeart: the National
Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. National sponsors
include: LifeWise by RadioShack, Johnson & Johnson
Reach Dental Floss, Cordis Corporation, and Albertsons.
“Johnson & Johnson is pleased to help focus
public attention on heart disease through efforts
such as The Heart Truth Road Show,”
said Nancy Snyderman, M.D., Vice President, Medical
Affairs, Johnson & Johnson. “Too many women
are unaware of their risk factors and the prevalence
and preventability of heart disease. We are committed
to increasing awareness among women and those who
love them,” added Snyderman.
The Road Show is designed to screen more than 1,000 women in each city for
heart disease risk factors and provide heart health
information to thousands more. Heart disease risk
factors include those that are beyond women’s
control and those that can be changed. Those that
can’t be changed are a family history of early
heart disease and age (55 and older for women). The
risk factors that can be controlled are smoking, high
blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, overweight/obesity,
physical inactivity, and diabetes. While having even
one risk factor is dangerous, having multiple risk
factors is especially serious, because risk factors
tend to “gang up” and worsen each other’s
effects.
The Heart Truth is a national awareness campaign
for women about heart disease, sponsored by the National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National
Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. The campaign first introduced the
Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart
disease awareness during American Heart Month at Fashion
Week in February 2003.
For more information about The Heart Truth
and its Red Dress symbol, please visit www.hearttruth.gov.
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