MAYWOOD, IL – Loyola Medicine colleagues wore red on Friday, February 2, 2018 in recognition of American Heart Month and the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign.

The Go Red for Women campaign takes place on the first Friday in February with the goal of raising awareness of heart disease in women.

Heart disease develops when a waxy substance called plaque builds up inside your coronary arteries. The buildup of plaque in your arteries causes a reduction in flow of oxygen-rich blood to your heart, leading to potential heart attack and damage to your heart.

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular diseases and stroke cause 1 in 3 women’s deaths each year, killing approximately one woman every 80 seconds. Ninety percent of women have one or more risk factors for heart disease or stroke.

Traditional heart disease risk factors such as high cholesterol, hypertension and obesity are present for women and men.

However, there are additional risk factors that are more specific to women, and may include:

  • Stress
  • Work-life balance
  • Postmenopausal state
  • Diabetes
  • Emotional distress
  • Lack of physical activity
  • Metabolic syndrome
  • Taking birth control pills
  • Undergoing hormone replacement therapy

Heart disease can impact women of all ages. Recognizing and managing your risk factors is important to your long-term health and well being. Loyola Medicine’s cardiology and heart surgery program, ranked 18th in the country by U.S. News & World Report, will work with you to monitor your risk factors and develop a plan to help you maintain a healthy heart.

About Loyola Medicine

Loyola Medicine, a member of Trinity Health, is a nationally ranked academic, quaternary care system based in Chicago's western suburbs. The three-hospital system includes Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC), Gottlieb Memorial HospitalMacNeal Hospital, as well as convenient locations offering primary care, specialty care and immediate care services from nearly 2,000 physicians throughout Cook, Will and DuPage counties. LUMC is a 547-licensed-bed hospital in Maywood that includes the William G. and Mary A. Ryan Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine, the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, the John L. Keeley, MD, Emergency Department, a Level 1 trauma center, Illinois's largest burn center, the Nancy W. Knowles Orthopaedic Institute, a certified comprehensive stroke centertransplant center and a children’s hospital. Having delivered compassionate care for over 50 years, Loyola also trains the next generation of caregivers through its academic affiliation with Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.   

For more information, visit loyolamedicine.org. You can also follow Loyola Medicine on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or X (formerly known as Twitter).

About Trinity Health

Trinity Health is one of the largest not-for-profit, faith-based health care systems in the nation. It is a family of 127,000 colleagues and more than 38,300 physicians and clinicians caring for diverse communities across 26 states. Nationally recognized for care and experience, the Trinity Health system includes 93 hospitals, 107 continuing care locations, the second largest PACE program in the country, 142 urgent care locations and many other health and well-being services. In fiscal year 2024, the Livonia, Michigan-based health system invested $1.3 billion in its communities in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs. For more information, visit us at www.trinity-health.org, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X (formerly known as Twitter).