At a Capitol Hill briefing this week promoting heart health for women, Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), co-chair of the Congressional Coalition on Heart and Stroke, said, “increased awareness, education and federal resources have helped, but too many people still wrongfully see heart disease as a ‘man’s disease’—thereby missing key warning signs and grave risks for women.”

     “Cardiovascular disease causes 1 in 3 women’s deaths each year,” said Smith, who has been a strong supporter of funding for the National Institutes of Health, programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention such as the WISEWOMAN and Million Heart programs, and a cosponsor of legislation such as the Furthering Access to Stroke Telemedicine Act.

     “While federal budgetary restrictions exist, with 398,035 women succumbing to this devastating disease annually, we must double our efforts to protect, and boost if possible, funding for heart disease and stroke programs. These programs are too important for women’s health,” said Smith, referring to the most recent statistics available from the American Heart Association. 

     Smith was the congressional headliner for the briefing hosted by the American Heart Association and WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease.

     Entitled “Women and Heart Health: A Guide to Staying Heart Healthy,” the forum highlighted the need for increased awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as the number one cause of death for women and for continued and increased federal support for research as well as programs aimed at surveillance and prevention. Other speakers featured at the event included a patient advocate, a cardiologist and a medical researcher from Johns Hopkin’s Women’s Cardiovascular Health Center.

     Awareness of risk factors for CVD was at the forefront of the briefing. 96% of heart attacks are attributable to nine risk factors that can be controlled or managed, such as hypertension, cholesterol and smoking. Maria Duca, MD, Co-Director of the Women’s Cardiology program for the Virtua Health System, spoke at length about risk factors specific to women, such as those related to pregnancy and menopause, as well as those shared with men.

     While CVD is the number one cause of death for women, and is more fatal for women than men, it is still often misdiagnosed in women; in fact, women are seven times more likely to have a heart attack that is misdiagnosed than men, as symptoms often present differently. Star Mirza, a CVD patient and WomenHeart Champion, spoke at the briefing about the years of heart palpitations, fainting and other symptoms she experienced before she was finally diagnosed with a heart rhythm condition.

     Smith has a long record of exposing the disparity in women’s heart health, including the lack of women in federally funded research.  In 1991, as the Chairman of the House panel on global health issues, Smith penned an op-ed in the Asbury Park Press entitled “Shutting women out: Misinformation is harming their medical care.” 

     “We have more work to do,” Smith said, noting progress but pushing for greater success.  “It’s important that we have women in representative numbers in federally funded studies so that we can understand how heart disease presents differently in women; if current diagnostic methods are effective in detecting CVD in women; and if women react similarly to men to different therapeutic treatments.” 

     Click here to read Smith’s floor remarks from 2016 recognizing American Heart Month in the Congressional Record.

     The Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition was founded in 1996 for the purpose of raising awareness of the seriousness of cardiovascular diseases and to act as a resource center for heart and stroke issues, including biomedical research, quality, the availability of care, health promotion and disease prevention. The coalition and its nearly 150 members also work to advance public policy aimed at fighting cardiovascular diseases.

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