WVU Medicine, Marion Co. Chamber partner for annual Go Red for Women awareness campaign

“It’s about making sure women understand the significant difference between their symptoms and what they may associate with normal heart symptoms and cardiac issues,” Gerdes said.

WVU Medicine Department of Cardiology Chair Dr. George Sokos added that the day — and month overall — underlines the prevalence of heart disease in women, which he said is “underappreciated.”

”I don’t think people realize how big of a factor heart disease is, particularly in women, and how it can affect women at a younger age,” Sokos said. “The whole purpose of this is to bring awareness to women that this can happen to you, too, and you should look out for any symptoms.”

Some of the symptoms to look out for, they said, are chest pains, arm pains and a feeling of heaviness, and they stressed that any concerning symptoms should be evaluated by a healthcare professional.

WVU Medicine’s Fairmont Medical Center is sponsoring a heart health luncheon for the Marion County Chamber of Commerce’s Women’s Network on Friday. The Chamber is also running a campaign to encourage people to wear red on Friday and take pictures of themselves to either send to the chamber or post on social media with the organization tagged.

Chamber President Pat Snively said he’s happy to promote women’s heart health each year in partnership with the healthcare organization, adding that it’s important to the chamber that it be a good community partner especially when it comes to health and wellbeing.

”One of our basic tenets is to promote quality of life in Marion County,” Snively said. “Heart disease is the number one killer of women in this country.

”Over 300,000 women will die from heart disease each year, and it’s important for us to not only promote good heart health, but provide good programming where women in our community can be informed and make sure that they’re getting checked frequently for any signs of heart disease.”