Today is Go Red for Women Day. Share with a woman you love how she can protect against heart attack and stroke. Love your hearts, ladies. Learn the signs of heart attack and stroke, and react quickly if you ever observe them.

Women are notorious for not taking care of themselves first. Heart attack and stroke are dramatically under-diagnosed in women, so badly that survival rates for women are worse (I will find a stat later, but wanted to get this post up fast). UPDATE: Some links below.

• Spain, 1998, women 70% more likely to die of their first heart attack.
• heart disease is THE leading killer of women
• 65% of women who die of heart attack had NO prior symptoms

You are better off, every time, to seek medical attention and have it turn out nothing was wrong. Too many women ignore their symptoms and risk factors until it’s too late.

Know the risk factors, but don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. I had no risk factors or warning signs prior to my stroke, and I ignored the (fortunately subtle) symptoms for hours. I got very lucky.

Women, love your hearts. Please.

UPDATE: @heizusan in line with that you can point people to www.americanheart.org - it’s a good site about heart health & awareness.