Paula Wolfson, wtop.com WASHINGTON - There is no racial equality
when it comes to heart disease. Women from all ethnic
backgrounds are susceptible, but African-Americans are hit the
hardest. "This disease kills more of us than anything else and
it kills us unevenly," said Dr. Janet Wright of the Department
of Health and Human Services. Wright is heading a campaign to
cut the rate of number of heart attacks in the U.S. by one
million over five years. A big focus of the effort is minority
communities and for good reason. "African-Americans, for
example, lose 14 months of life due to cardiovascular disease,
more than other races and more than any other disease within the
African-American population," she said. Looking at the
statistics in another way, African-American women are 35 percent
more likely to die of heart disease than Caucasian women, and
surveys show they are far less aware of their risk factors. Some
of it is genetic, but a lot is lifestyle. Black women develop
hypertension earlier in life and have