Wear Red Today to Promote Heart Disease Awareness
Today is National Wear Red Day—also known as Go Red for Women Day— when people are asked to wear red in order to promote awareness of heart disease and stroke in women. Efforts to improve awareness of cardiovascular disease has made some progress: In 2000, 34 percent of women knew that heart disease was their gender's No. 1 killer, and that figure had increased to 46 percent by 2003 and 57 percent by 2006, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. African-American and Hispanic women are at higher risk of heart disease—and are less aware of its dangers—than white women. A study published in Circulation in 2006 showed that when women are aware of their heart disease risk, they're more likely to take action to reduce risk by exercising, eating more healthfully, and losing weight.
U.S. News's Bernadine Healy, a cardiologist, offers this tribute to the heart and discusses why congestive heart failure is a growing heart problem. Learn about 7 better ways to screen for heart disease, and also what factors to consider if you're faced with a choice of bypass surgery or angioplasty. Also, U.S. News 's brand-new panel of medical experts is ready to answer your questions about heart health.
What You Need to Know About Pancreatic Cancer
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being treated for pancreatic cancer, but doctors reportedly caught the small tumor early, which may improve her odds of surviving the usually deadly disease. Pancreatic cancer is relatively rare, but in the past few years, it has gotten more attention because actor Patrick Swayze and Apple CEO Steven Jobs were diagnosed with the condition. (A public letter Jobs recently posted on Apple's website did little to clear up the mystery of his persistent weight loss.) To help you understand pancreatic cancer, U.S. News's Katherine Hobson provides a list of 6 things you should know about the disease.
In September, Hobson explained what you need to know about mapping the cancer genome, and in 2005, she reported on the passing of former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died of thyroid cancer.
From Back Pain to Heart Rehab, Exercise Is Underused
What if doctors could prescribe something that could relieve lower back and neck pain, very likely improve the outlook for many heart disease patients, and significantly cut the odds of developing or worsening diabetes? You'd assume that they'd write the prescriptions and patients would eagerly fill them, right? That process might work if it were as easy as taking a pill, but it falls apart when the remedy is exercise, Katherine Hobson reports. This week, researchers reported that exercise was prescribed by fewer than half of the doctors, chiropractors, and physical therapists seen by a group of patients with lower back or neck pain.
It's hard to tease out exactly why exercise isn't being used as much as it should be. On the supply side, researchers have suggested that doctors simply aren't as informed as they should be of the benefits of exercise in various ailments, particularly for the elderly. Also, insurance doesn't always pay for supervised exercise with a physical therapist or other healthcare worker, so patients may run into the cost issue when such a program gets recommended. Still, there are very few excuses for not exercising, even for people with aches, pains, and chronic diseases.
—January W. Payne
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