Special Episode: A Heartfelt Conversation with Ladies of The Links, Incorporated on the 16th Annual DMV Links Red Dress Weekend

The Minority Leaders Podcast is a women of color leadership initiative sponsored by Catalyst Global Strategies, LLC, a public affairs firm in Washington, D.C.   As #Catalysts4Good we have partnered with the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia  (DMV) chapters of The Links, Incorporated to bring you a special episode of the Minority Leaders in support of  the 16th Annual DMV Links Red Dress Weekend!

In this episode, I am joined by Suzanne Walker—President Arlington (VA) Chapter of the Links Incorporated and Dr. Kelly Epps-Anderson, MD, MSHP—  a  Link  member and  Director of Interventional Cardiology Clinical Trials at the Inova Schar Heart and Vascular Institute  to get to the heart of the matter.

Heart health isn't just a personal concern; it's a community triumph—or tragedy. That's the hard-hitting reality we unpack during this episode.  Together, we unravel the startling statistics of cardiovascular disease in Black women and the life-saving measures being implemented through the Red Dress Weekend. This episode is a deep dive into the intersection of race, health, and community, as we shine a spotlight on this silent killer that affects 59% of Black women over 20.

If you're looking to empower yourself and your loved ones with the tools to take charge of your heart health, make sure to catch  the 16th Annual DMV Links Red Dress Weekend kickoff event on event on #NationalWearRedDay Friday, February 02, 2024 from  7:00pm-9:00pm ET on Facebook Live,  coming to you “Straight From The Heart”, with expert speakers + panelists + curated content on #hearthealth #totalwellness.
Register for the event here.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Heart disease and stroke are the number one killer of women and unfortunately, black women are disproportionately affected. Among black women over the age of 20, 59 percent have some form of cardiovascular disease, and this is more than any other demographic group.

Speaker 2: 0:27

I am Aljean Sanjiri, and this is the Minority Leaders, the podcast that highlights the career journeys of women of color change makers in politics, policymaking and business. Put on those safety glasses as we continue to break all of the glass ceilings. Today we have a very special episode for you. As you may know, the Minority Leaders podcast is a women of color leadership initiative funded by my firm, catalyst Global Strategies LLC, and, as Catalysts for Good, we are dedicated to increasing minority women representation, and so we're proud to sponsor this 16th annual DNV Links Red Dress Weekend. That's the DC, maryland and Virginia chapters of Links Incorporated. So we are really excited and applaud the women of Links Incorporated for their leadership in organizing this, the largest free online heart health and wellness event for black women. This event reaches over 150,000 people globally, and also it generates funds to make impactful monetary donations to DMV nonprofits in need.

Speaker 2: 1:53

The special episode features Suzanne Walker, president of the Arlington chapter of the Links Incorporated and a member of the links, dr Kelly Epps Anderson, interventional cardiologist at the I Knower Sharr Health and Vascular Institute in Virginia, and so we are all about giving women the information and tools they need to recognize heart disease and hopefully, hopefully, we're going to be saving some lives with this episode and empowering women to live their best lives. That's right. We're going to give you the tools to live your best lives, so listen up and let's get into it. I am excited to have this very special episode featuring the DMV Links I am going to be talking about and featuring their signature event. It is the 16th annual DMV Links Red Dress Weekend.

Speaker 2: 3:00

I just want to welcome you, ladies, to the show today and thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much for having us. I want to start by talking to you, mrs Walker. I know that you are the president of the Arlington chapters of the links and this initiative, the Red Dress Weekend, started initially with the Arlington chapter. Can you talk a little bit about, first of all, the links incorporated for those who don't know in our audience and discuss the links, your organization and what you all do within the community?

Speaker 3: 3:37

Certainly. Thank you so much again for having me. The Links Incorporated is a wonderful service organization of friends who want to give back to the community. We are 17,000 plus members in 299 chapters with more than one million documented service hours across the nation. We have been leaders in philanthropy and hands-on community service.

Speaker 3: 4:05

We have many areas of focus that we participate in, mainly to help the African-American community and the community at large to succeed and be successful in many areas, and we call these areas facets, and so the Red Dress event comes under our Health and Human Services Facet, which was incorporated to respond to the chronic health disparities that persist in black communities and has resulted in the decreased life expectancy of African Americans and other people of African ancestry. So this one particular facet, the Health and Human Services Facet, had a goal to protect and promote and facilitate programs that support the maintenance of good health and eliminate chronic health disparities. So under that realm we came up with Heart Links, and that's a sub-program that really focuses on the heart, heart health. So there's a lot of great information that we plan to provide during our Red Dress Weekend, which is actually was started by the American Red Cross to bring attention to heart health across the country and in all communities.

Speaker 2: 5:14

Well, fantastic, and you all started with this partnership with the Red Cross and the, I believe, the American Heart Association, and then launched this Red Dress Weekend and you've been doing it now, for this is the 16th year. Very exciting. Can you tell us some of the things that inspire you to do this work? What was the reason you chose to highlight the incidence of heart disease in African-American women?

Speaker 3: 5:43

Well, I think, as Dr Epps Anderson will tell you, heart disease is one of the number one killers of African-American women and we are a women's organization and we want to make sure that not only the women in our organization but all women have access to information that can help them with their health goals to protect and serve their longevity, especially with heart health.

Speaker 3: 6:05

So we started the Red Dress event 16 years ago. It was an in-person event where we had people come in and had panelists and discussions and screenings and health information that was provided. As a matter of fact, many of our community members learned that they had significant health issues by coming to our event and getting screened to things that they really didn't know. Because, I believe Dr Epps Anderson will tell you, heart disease is sometimes a very silent killer and symptoms may not be as prevalent. So we encourage heart healthy behaviors like walking and obesity prevention, cardiovascular risk reduction and other programs, and Red Dress was a way to combine all of those resources together to come up with a program that has a significant reach. So while we started out small in hotel ballrooms and community events, we've actually started, actually transitioned to a virtual event which has much larger reach. So this year, our event is a virtual weekend full of great information.

Speaker 2: 7:06

Fantastic. That's really exciting to hear and it's wonderful to hear that this is a whole weekend. I know that it's going to be live stream and it's one of the largest live screen free health events for the African American community. So congratulations on that. Dr Kelly Epps Anderson, your cardiologist, you're also a link and I know that you want to share some more detailed information on the incidence of heart disease in women, specifically the impact on African American women. Tell us a little bit about that and maybe some of the common myths about women in heart disease.

Speaker 1: 7:45

Sure.

Speaker 1: 7:47

So this event has always been near and dear to my heart, just given my involvement with the links incorporated.

Speaker 1: 7:54

I'm a member of the Potomac chapter, the links, and I'm also currently serving as board president of the American Heart Association for Greater Washington region, so it's been a great partnership. And heart disease and stroke are the number one killer of women and unfortunately, black women are disproportionately affected. Among black women over the age of 20, 59% have some form of cardiovascular disease and this is more than any other demographic group, and this is in part due to some of our cardiovascular risk factors. There tends to be a greater clustering of risk factors in African American women and some of this may be genetic, but also we know that lifestyle has a very significant role here and it's so important that African American women know that they are at greater risk. And unfortunately, the sort of trends in terms of awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women and particularly black women. It's just under recognized in the community and black women have less awareness than white women overall that this is their major risk factor.

Speaker 2: 9:08

Honestly, I was really surprised when you said black women over the age of 20, 59%. That seems like a young age right To think about heart disease. Can you talk a little bit about why that is? It's just such a you know you think about heart disease, heart attack, stroke happening to much older people.

Speaker 1: 9:29

Right and I think you know that's one of the myths is that we tend to think that heart disease is a disease that primarily impacts the elderly and, honestly, the prevalence of heart disease does increase with age and so it's understandable that that has been a myth. But we certainly know that men and women much younger can be impacted Particularly. When we think about women, we know that cardiovascular disease is an important, an important risk for women, particularly at across the life spectrum as hormones change. So we know there are certain times in a woman's life, particularly around pregnancy, where we get concerned about cardiovascular disease. We know that over a third of maternal deaths are due to cardiovascular disease and black women actually have the highest rate of maternal mortality. So that's an important time for younger women to think about their risk.

Speaker 1: 10:22

We know that 10 to 20% of women have some health issues around pregnancy, particularly issues like high blood pressure related to pregnancy. Gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and also gestational diabetes can impact pregnancy and this all increases the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. But we know, even 10 to 15 years after a woman has a pregnancy which has been impacted by gestational hypertension or preeclampsia, that they're at higher risk for heart disease, for stroke in the 10 to 15 years after. So these are younger women that we're talking about, and so, across the life spectrum, women should be thinking about their risk, not just once they are postmenopausal.

Speaker 2: 11:09

Okay, yeah, I mean, I'm about to turn 47. So I was thinking, wow, I'm so glad we're highlighting this issue, because I'm getting towards that age and now I realize that it's an issue that probably may have been impacting me all my life, and my grandmother passed of heart disease, and so I was thinking is it hereditary as well? What are some of the common indicators? And you mentioned genetics. You mentioned yeah, so can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 1: 11:41

Sure. So I think it's so important to know family history and I think that's why we have to really be an advocate for ourselves and really make sure we're talking to family members about what their history is, because we say 40 to 60% of cardiovascular disease has some genetic component to it. Now, it may be multiple genes, it may not just be one gene that's passed from one family member to the other, but the way that all of these genes interact with each other, we know that there is a genetic component. So knowing your family history, and particularly a family history of what we call premature cardiovascular disease so premature heart disease or coronary artery disease, is heart disease that presents before the age of 55 in a man or before the age of 65 in a woman, we know that that has a stronger genetic link.

Speaker 1: 12:31

So talking to your grandmother about what her history is and when she developed this, because it may have a greater implication for you.

Speaker 1: 12:40

So genetics is important because genetics can impact cardiovascular risk factors as well, like hypertension. We know that that can run in families and we know that African Americans Hypertension is probably one of our greatest risk factors, where 58% of women of African-American women have some form of hypertension. We know that's a risk factor for future cardiac events and that has a strong genetic component. But we think in African-Americans that there may be a particular gene that makes us more sensitive to salt, and salt in the diet can increase blood pressure. So there's genetics in that way. We know there's genetic component to diabetes and to obesity as well, and so certainly knowing what that risk is and the important part is that genetics although you may not be able to change your genetics, you can modify the risk factors that contribute to heart disease. So even if you do have a family history, there's still something that you can do about it, because 80% of cardiovascular disease is preventable with lifestyle modification or lifestyle interventions.

Speaker 2: 13:44

Okay, so we talked about salt, we talked about you know being able to mitigate that with I heard earlier walking and things like that. What are some of the other ways to mitigate heart disease? If you say you find out that you have, you know, grandparents or parents that have been subject to it, or have you know been had premature heart disease, what can we do to prevent getting heart disease ourselves?

Speaker 1: 14:14

Yes. So the American Heart Association has developed a prescription for health and it's called Life's Simple Seven, and it's things that we can do on our own to modify risk factors to help reduce our risk of cardiovascular disease. So one is stop smoking. We know that cardiovascular disease is greatly impacted by smoking. It increases your risk and when I see young patients who present with cardiovascular disease, smoking is probably one of their greatest risk factors. So stop smoking. Eat better. This is heart-healthy diet, diet high in fruits and vegetables and proteins and that are lower in our saturated fats.

Speaker 1: 14:53

To be active we know that being sedentary is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association recommends 30 to 45 minutes most days of the week of regular moderate intensity exercise for cardiovascular health. And it's even more. It's 60 to 90 minutes most days of the week for weight loss. Weight loss is another one of those simple seven.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Managing blood pressure so we know I mentioned 58% of African American women have hypertension. Unfortunately, only 20% have well-controlled blood pressure. So having the diagnosis of hypertension, making sure you're following up with your doctors, but then also making sure you're on top of that being well-controlled, and that is often with like these lifestyle interventions that we're talking about diet modification and exercise and weight loss, also controlling cholesterol, and this can be through dietary intake, it can also be through exercise. It may also be through medications If your doctor thinks that you need to be on a medication for cholesterol, listen. And then also reducing your blood sugar. We know that high blood sugar can lead to diabetes and that is one of the greatest risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and we often refer to it in the medical community as a risk, as an equivalent of cardiovascular disease, because patients with diabetes are so much more likely to develop cardiovascular disease in the future.

Speaker 2: 16:14

Well, this is good to know. I mean, you know, sometimes I think that when I walk my son to school, that's getting some exercise, but it sounds like it has to be a little bit more rigorous than that and more regular, right?

Speaker 1: 16:27

But it is, but it is. You know, and I think a lot of people don't think of walking as exercise. But walking is exercise, it's great exercise, but it may mean increasing the increasing the intensity a little bit or the duration, but but walking is great exercise, so I encourage that.

Speaker 2: 16:41

And then you mentioned, you know, a healthy diet. Some people go on diets. I know for a while there I was doing what Ackens or something and that doesn't sound like a diet. That would be heart healthy, if you will. I'm curious what you would recommend on that.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Right for diet. So you know, diets that are like the Atkins diet or diets that we think are more ketogenic. They can lead to weight loss, which we know is good in terms of reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. But my concern about those types of diets diets that are higher in fats is that it can really impact blood cholesterol levels and so I've seen patients who have gone on those diets and lost weight but then another risk factor their cholesterol is suddenly really poorly controlled and that may outweigh the actual benefit of the weight loss. So I don't generally think those are the best diets for heart health.

Speaker 1: 17:37

The best diets we think for heart health can be diet like the Mediterranean diet you know is a diet that I frequently recommend for patients who are trying to get control of their cardiac risk factors. Also more plant-based diets. So vegetarian diets or vegan diets we know can reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease as well. But I think overall just a general heart healthy diet and it's not necessarily a diet that's very restrictive because those may be hard to maintain long term, but a diet that really does become a way of life for you and that can be just thinking about. How do I increase plants in my diet? How do I increase grains in my diet? How do I make sure that I have nice, healthy proteins in my diet? We know that animal fats can tend to raise cholesterol levels, but how do we pick those of the animal fats that may be healthier? And that is a way I think that we can really focus on making a diet a lifestyle, rather than something that's very restrictive and difficult to maintain long term.

Speaker 2: 18:44

So if say I have, you know it runs in my family and I know that I can mitigate some of the impact. But what about the symptoms? Like what are some of the symptoms of heart disease? Like what should I be looking out for? What should the listeners be looking out for?

Speaker 1: 18:59

Right, and I think that's a great question because there's a lot of there can be misconception about what the symptoms are. I think we all know of the typical symptoms, which is the you know crushing chest pain elephant on my chest. That has been typically what patients have thought of as having symptoms of heart disease and that is a symptom. But we know, in particular for women. It's so important to know that women often present with symptoms that are less typical and symptoms that can be more subtle, and so actually more women complain of shortness of breath rather than chest pain as their sign of heart disease. They may complain of feeling fatigued, obnoxious, vomiting, symptoms that are more subtle than the crushing chest pain. And then also, I think pain is a word that oftentimes patients presenting with heart attacks will say no, it's not pain, I'm not having any chest pain. But if you talk to them further, they are having some sensation in their chest, some discomfort, and they may describe it more like heartburn and they're they're mistaking it for more gastrointestinal symptoms. But it's more of a discomfort, many heart attack patients will say, rather than true pain itself.

Speaker 1: 20:12

And I think also signs and symptoms of stroke are important we're talking about, about cardiovascular disease overall, which includes not only heart disease but includes diseases like stroke. I think it's important for patients to recognize quickly their symptoms of stroke as well, because we know if you present to the hospital earlier that there are interventions that can happen to earlier you present. It may not be available to you if you present several hours into a stroke presentation. So symptoms of stroke can be things like weakness on one side of the body, can be numbness or tingling on one side of the body, facial droop, confusion or disorientation, dizziness. These are all symptoms that you should take note of urgently and be evaluated by a healthcare provider urgently, not go to sleep, wake up and then go if they don't get better. It's something that, within minutes to hours, you need to be assessed by a healthcare professional so that you can have the best treatments available to you.

Speaker 2: 21:11

Well, that's extremely important and thank you for that information and sharing that, dr Epps Anderson. It seems like really life-saving information. So we really appreciate hearing from you and we appreciate the fact that 15 DMV chapters of the Lynx Incorporated will be hosting this event this weekend, for Friday or Friday the 2nd of February, from 7 pm to 9 pm. There's a Facebook Live, so we want everyone to tune in to get more of this incredible information and thank you, dr Kelly Epps Anderson and Mrs Suzanne Walker from the Lynx. Any parting words or closing words or thoughts on this that we didn't cover in the conversation today?

Speaker 3: 22:01

This is Suzanne, and one of the things that Dr Epps mentioned about the symptoms.

Speaker 3: 22:06

A lot of times the information will drive you to check things out that you may not realize, and I'll give you an example. At one of our Red Dress events there was a screening for high blood pressure just a blood pressure screening and there were women who were healthy. They thought they were healthy, they thought they were fit, and they got the screening and realized, oh, my blood pressure is really really high. And they would later go on to a doctor and find out that they did have some issues with cholesterol or with high blood pressure and have to get on medication and then maybe get to a nutritionist to see how can they mitigate some of those symptoms that might cause these outcomes. And so information is power, and that's why we produce this event every year, and the collaboration with all of the DMV chapters helps us get our reach out there, helps us to get the word out to a community that may not be thinking about it.

Speaker 3: 23:01

You know, in your everyday life you may not think that you have an issue with high blood pressure and this kind of event. With information like that from experts, from people who are in the field of heart health can share. That gets people motivated to go check and to see are they at risk, is there something that they can do to mitigate some of these outcomes? And so it's really important to share the information and to make sure that everybody listens and participates and asks the kinds of questions that would lead them to go get their health checked and to make some lifestyle changes that can impact their longevity.

Speaker 2: 23:38

Well, that's fantastic. Thank you so much for this important session and I'm going to be tuning in on Friday at Facebook Live and I look forward to the speakers and the panels and the Q&A. And you know what listeners? A lot of our listeners are very young because they're looking for guidance on careers and how to develop their leadership skills, and so we want to thank you for sharing this information. Now I know, 20 years old, you need to be at this event on Friday, okay, as young as 20 years old, listening in and getting that information and share it with your friends. We want to make sure to educate women young African American women in the community about this incredible health risk and what we can do to prevent it and mitigate it, and so thank you, thank you, suzanne, and thank you, kelly, for joining us today, and we appreciate you, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 3: 24:31

I'm really proud to be here, thank you. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 24:37

For more from the minority leaders, find us on Instagram at theminorityleaders, where we'll continue the discussion. Highlight women of color change makers and keep breaking every one of those glass ceilings. I'm your host, Elgin Sadri. Make sure to subscribe and leave a review. We'll be back next time with more inspiring conversations.