SXU participates in National Woman’s Heart Day Health Fair

Free heart screening, health information available

Chicago (Feb. 1, 2008) The Saint Xavier University School of Nursing will help provide free heart disease risk screenings with follow-up consultation offered during the 2008 National Woman’s Heart Day Health Fair from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008, in the lobby of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.

Sister To Sister: Everyone Has A Heart Foundation, Inc. sponsors the one-day national event. Saint Xavier University’s School of Nursing will provide a volunteer staff of 25 faculty and 50 undergraduate and graduate students to register participants, provide screenings and conduct counseling.

Screening tests and lab work will measure body mass index, blood pressure, blood glucose and total cholesterol, as well as HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Attendees will receive instant results and a personal health consultation conducted by advanced-practice nurses. At last year’s event, SXU School of Nursing faculty and students conducted heart disease risk screenings for 600 women.

“This free event is extremely important in alerting women to warning signs of heart disease,” said SXU School of Nursing Interim Dean Kay Thurn, Psy.D., R.N. “Its benefits are undeniable, and Saint Xavier’s School of Nursing is eager to continue providing life saving health information."

The Health Fair will include exhibits and demonstrations as well as panel discussions on such topics as menopause, the effects of statins and other cardiac medications, the benefits of heart-friendly exercise and the importance of avoiding obesity.

The Chicago National Woman’s Heart Day Health Fair is one of 17 offered around the nation as part of the growing women’s heart health movement. The Sister To Sister Foundation began in 2000 in Washington, D.C., and now offers events in cities across the country including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, N.C., Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Fla., Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix and St. Louis.

The Sister To Sister: Everyone Has A Heart Foundation is the only national organization that focuses solely on women’s heart disease screening and prevention. The organization was founded by its president, Irene Pollin, wife of Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin. The couple lost two children to heart disease.

Last year’s Chicago National Women’s Heart Day Health Fair event attracted more than 2,500 attendees.
-SXU-

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Contact: Rick Ducat
773-298-3325 or ducat@sxu.edu