Go Red For Women

The following letter to the editor appeared in today's Chicago Tribune.

If you were near the Illinois Capitol building on Feb. 9, you would have seen a slew of women legislators wearing red to spread awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women.

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease -- which includes heart disease and stroke -- claims the lives of nearly 34,000 people in Illinois every year. As co-chairs of Illinois' Conference of Women Legislators, we are proud to join with AHA's national Go Red For Women movement to deliver this important message about women's heart health. Women are at the "heart" of most families, and if they don't take care of their heart health, the whole family suffers.

Usually women are so busy taking care of others that they pay little attention to their own wellness. That's why it is so important for all of us to make it our mission to remind the women we love to pay attention to their health and to make healthy lifestyle changes at home and in their communities. Starting with ourselves, we must become more engaged in the fight to stop our number one killer – heart disease.

We Go Red for all of the women in Illinois because we don't want another woman to become a statistic. Who do you Go Red for?

-- Sen. Carole Pankau (R-23rd)
--Rep. Naomi Jakobsson (D-103rd)