If you’re seeing red everywhere today, it’s almost certainly National Wear Red Day, held on the first Friday of every February. The day is part of a broader effort during American Heart Month to raise awareness about heart disease, particularly in women. It’s organized by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute alongside the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign, which launched in 2004 and has been running for over two decades.
What National Wear Red Day Is About
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States. In 2023 alone, it killed roughly 305,000 women, accounting for about 1 in every 5 female deaths. Despite those numbers, awareness remains surprisingly low. A 2025 survey of cardiologists found that only about 1 in 4 women they treat actually know heart disease is the top cause of death among women.
That gap between reality and awareness is the whole reason the red clothing exists. The visual is simple: when an entire office, school, or social media feed turns red on the same day, it starts conversations. The Go Red for Women campaign was founded specifically to close gaps in how heart disease in women is understood, diagnosed, and treated.
Why the Focus Is on Women
Heart disease has long been treated as a men’s health issue in public perception, but the biology tells a different story. Women often experience heart attacks differently than men. The classic Hollywood heart attack, with crushing chest pain, is more typical in men. Women are more likely to have vague symptoms: unusual fatigue, nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath, or pain in the jaw, back, or upper abdomen. These symptoms can show up while resting or even during sleep, making them easy to dismiss as stress or a stomach bug.
Because the signs look different, women are more likely to delay seeking help, and healthcare providers can be slower to recognize what’s happening. That delay costs lives.
Risk Factors Unique to Women
Beyond the shared risk factors like high blood pressure, smoking, and high cholesterol, women face a set of cardiovascular risks tied to reproductive health. Conditions during pregnancy, including preeclampsia (dangerously high blood pressure), gestational diabetes, and preterm delivery, all increase the long-term risk of heart disease years or even decades later. Early menopause, before age 40, is another significant risk factor. So are endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome.
These connections matter because many women and their doctors treat pregnancy complications as temporary problems that resolve after delivery. In reality, they can be early warning signs of cardiovascular trouble down the road.
The Disparities Are Stark
Heart disease doesn’t affect all women equally. Black women face dramatically higher cardiovascular risks than white women. Research on maternal health in California found that Black mothers had more than twice the risk of chronic hypertension compared to white mothers, and 1.5 times the risk of preeclampsia. Cardiovascular conditions account for a disproportionate share of maternal deaths among Black women. American Indian and Alaska Native women were also less likely to have ideal cardiovascular health before and during pregnancy compared to white women.
These gaps reflect longstanding inequities in healthcare access, quality of care, and the social and economic conditions that shape health long before someone walks into a clinic.
What Actually Protects Your Heart
The American Heart Association identifies eight core factors that determine cardiovascular health. None of them are surprising on their own, but the specifics matter.
- Physical activity: 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week. That’s about 20 minutes a day of brisk walking.
- Diet: A pattern built around whole foods, fruits, vegetables, lean protein, nuts, and seeds, cooked in oils like olive or canola.
- Sleep: 7 to 9 hours per night for adults. Sleep deprivation raises the risk of chronic disease and impairs the body’s ability to heal.
- Tobacco: Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. Quitting at any age reduces cardiovascular risk.
- Weight: Maintaining a BMI under 25 is the general target, though context matters.
- Cholesterol: Keeping “bad” cholesterol (non-HDL) in check is more important than tracking total cholesterol. This can be measured without fasting.
- Blood sugar: Consistently elevated blood sugar damages blood vessels over time, even before a diabetes diagnosis.
- Blood pressure: High blood pressure forces the heart to work harder and damages artery walls, setting the stage for heart attack and stroke.
When to Start Screening
Current guidelines recommend that young adults without known cholesterol problems get a standard lipid panel starting at age 19, then repeat it every five years. The frequency should increase as you get older or if you have additional risk factors. A one-time measurement of a blood marker called Lp(a), which is largely genetic, is now recommended for all adults to help assess cardiovascular risk.
For women specifically, doctors are encouraged to factor in reproductive history when evaluating heart disease risk. A history of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, preterm delivery, or early menopause before age 45 should prompt more personalized screening and earlier conversations about prevention. If you’ve experienced any of these, it’s worth making sure your doctor knows and is factoring them into your care.