With Valentine’s Day coming up, we’ll be seeing a lot of red hearts, but also because it’s American Heart Month. Brian Geelan is a spokesman for the Iowa chapter of the American Heart Association.
“We really focus on heart health awareness during this month of February, especially this year because we’re celebrating the American Heart Association’s 100th birthday,” Geelan says. “So it’s American Heart Month, we’ve got our centennial celebration, we’ve just got lots of good things to talk about throughout the month.”
Tomorrow is National Wear Red Day, which is always the first Friday in February. Geelan encourages Iowans to wear something red all day and to do a little research and consider their own heart health.
“This day is really centered around focusing on the Go Red For Women movement and raising awareness that cardiovascular disease is the number-one killer of women,” Geelan says. “Cardiovascular disease actually kills more women every year than all forms of cancer combined.”
Geelan says educating the public about heart health is a key program with the Heart Association.
“Cardiovascular disease overall is the number-one killer of all Americans, men and women,” Geelan says. “If you look at it globally, it’s also the number-one killer, stroke is number-two, and the state of Iowa really reflects those numbers as well, where heart disease is the number-one killer of men and women.”
This February also marks the 60th annual observance of American Heart Month. There will be special events across Iowa for the observance of American Heart Month. Learn more HERE.
(Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)