Amid sea of red, women raise awareness and more for American Heart Association

WOODBRIDGE, Va. – Amid a sea of red, women from all walks of life gathered to listen, raise awareness and raise money for the American Heart Association.

On Wednesday, February 28, in front of a capacity audience, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center and Sentara Heart & Vascular Center hosted the annual Red Dress Luncheon to support the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign.

“This is an amazing event for women in our community. It’s informative, it’s interesting and it’s fun,” says Kathie Johnson, President, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.

 Johnson, served as the event’s emcee at Matchbox Restaurant in Woodbridge.

Among the messages for the women: make your health a priority, know your risk factors, and know heart attack symptoms.

According to the American Heart Association, some of those symptoms for women include:

• Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, or pain in the center of your chest. It lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes
• Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or
• Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.
• Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or
• As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.

“Women, because they have so many responsibilities, tend to neglect themselves,” explains Medical Director of

Electrophysiology at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, Dr. Aysha Arshad, “By the time women patients show up for care, their disease and prognosis are much worse compared to men.”

Survivor and keynote speaker, Katherine Hazemey was just 38 years old when she suffered her heart attack.

Since that time, Hazamey has changed her life and changed her habits. Even though she works long hours, she now gets up at three in the morning to make sure she has time for exercise.

It was that piece of the puzzle, Leslianne Grendysz, NP, shared with the crowd, it’s never too late to make changes in your life to benefit your heart with healthy habits.

“It’s important to take charge of your life and that means taking charge of your health,” Grendysz explained to the crowd, “Know your risk factors. Some factors like heredity, our race, our sex – we have no control over. But, we do have control over our diet, activity level and deciding whether we smoke or drink. Changing some of our habits can make all the difference in the world.”

Some of those habits include:

• Get active
• Control cholesterol
• Eat better
• Manage blood pressure
• Maintain a healthy weight/BMI
• Reduce blood sugar
• Stop smoking

To learn just how healthy your heart is, log onto Sentara’s 28daysofheart.com to learn more about risk factors, healthy tips and recipes and discover what your heart’s age is, the answer might surprise you.

Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center is a 183-bed, not-for-profit community hospital serving Prince William County and its surrounding communities. Our medical center combines the resources of a major health system with the compassionate, personalized care of a community hospital.

SNVMC offers quiet, private rooms and high quality care focused on safety and patient satisfaction. We offer a wide range of medical specialties, a highly qualified medical and clinical staff and state-of- the-art technology. Our clinical services include advanced imaging, cancer services, diabetes management, emergency care, heart and vascular care, lab services, neurology, primary care, orthopedics, urology, weight loss surgery, women’s services and more.