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- Dr. Tasleem S. Katchi, MD, Cardiologist of Parkersburg Cardiology Associates, spoke to attendees about heart health at the Annual Women’s Healthy Heart Luncheon held at the Parkersburg Art Center Friday. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
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- Around 185 people gathered at the Parkersburg Art Center Friday for the Annual Women’s Healthy Heart Luncheon hosted by The Camden Clark Foundation. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
Dr. Tasleem S. Katchi, MD, Cardiologist of Parkersburg Cardiology Associates, spoke to attendees about heart health at the Annual Women’s Healthy Heart Luncheon held at the Parkersburg Art Center Friday. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
PARKERSBURG — The Camden Clark Foundation hosted the Annual Women’s Healthy Heart Luncheon on Friday to continue its efforts to raise awareness and provide education around heart health in observance of National Heart Month at the Parkersburg Art Center.
Around 185 people were in attendance to enjoy a good meal and learn about healthy heart habits for the first time since 2020.
The luncheon program featured two female physicians, Tasleem S. Katchi, MD, Cardiologist of Parkersburg Cardiology Associates, and Jahnavi Kakuturu, MD, Thoracic Surgeon of WVU Heart & Vascular Institute at Camden Clark, who spoke about healthy living and the dangers of heart disease.
“Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in both men and women,” Katchi said to the crowd. “It kills about one in three people each year. It claims the life of about one woman every 80 seconds.”
Katchi said for every woman who dies from breast cancer there are six who die from heart disease.
Around 185 people gathered at the Parkersburg Art Center Friday for the Annual Women’s Healthy Heart Luncheon hosted by The Camden Clark Foundation. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
“And only 44% of women recognize that cardiovascular disease is their greatest health threat,” Katchi said. “A lot of women still believe breast cancer is their greatest health threat. That’s why we wanted to increase awareness about heart disease in women.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says over 60 million women in the United States are living with some form of heart disease. Katchi said cardiovascular disease claims the most numbers of maternal deaths with one in three being caused by the disease and that Black women have the highest rate of maternal mortality.
“Ten to 20 percent will have some kind of cardiovascular issue,” Katchi said. “That can include high blood pressure, preeclampsia, which is high blood pressure and protein in your urine in severe form, and that could lead to seizures as well, and gestational diabetes. And all of these significantly increase a women’s risk for developing cardiovascular disease later in life.”
Katchi said the number of women who recognize cardiovascular disease as their highest health threat has decreased between 2009 and 2019. She said only 43.7% recognized cardiovascular disease as the number one threat to women’s health.
“We still have a huge deficit and we still need to work on increasing this awareness,” Dr. Katchi said.
Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com
