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Heart disease awareness and prevention
In addition to being Black History Month and Library Lovers Month, February is American Heart Month, which makes it the perfect time to focus on heart-disease awareness and prevention.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and while ribbons for cancer awareness are prevalent, it's rare to see a red dress—the symbol of the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign—magnet on someone's car. Luckily there is a plethora of resources online to help you educate yourself about heart disease and what you can do to help prevent it.
Web MD, one of the leading health portals in the United States, has a Heart Disease Guide that includes information on heart-disease causes, symptoms, tests and treatments, as well as a section on living with heart disease.
In line with its mission to "build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke," the American Heart Association's Web site is targeted toward the general public and provides much information on heart attack and stroke, while encouraging users to make positive changes in their heart health. One of the most educational features of the site is the Cardiovascular Media Library, which provides captioned illustrations and animations of conditions, treatments and procedures related to heart disease. Through the site, you can also sign up for free monthly e-newsletters to help you stay abreast of new developments in heart health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has a Web page specifically focused on heart disease. Fact sheets on the relationship between gender and heart disease are particularly useful, and an FAQ helps users quickly find answers to their questions. It also is the perfect starting point for those interested in statistical information about heart disease in the United States.
The University Libraries is a gateway to many resources on heart disease and heart health. There is a general resources by subject guide for Medicine that points to partial and full-text databases like MEDLINE and EBMR, as well as a guide specifically focused on UB library resources entitled Heart and Cardiovascular: Selected Resources.
Spend some time this month learning a bit about heart disease and what you can do to reduce your risk. Your heart, and that of your valentine, will thank you for it.
—Karen Morse, University Libraries