Residents Embrace Go Red for Women Campaign

A strong message was delivered this week during a viewing of Go Red for Women Presents: Speak up to Save Lives at the .

The NBC television special, hosted by The Today Show personality Hoda Kotb and featuring actress Jenny Garth, is part of a national American Heart Association campaign to raise awareness about women's health. It aired last month on WDIV, Channel 4, in the Detroit area.

“You embrace it; you dance with it,” said Janine Krolikowski of women's health. Krolikowski is a heart attack survivor and national spokeswoman for the American Heart Association's 2011 Go Red For Women movement.

The Huntington Woods resident urged the women who packed the room, young and old, to take control of their health, and she shared her heart attack experience to illustrate her point.

Krolikowski, 53, did not call 911 back in 2004 when she started experiencing back pain that soon wrapped around to her chest. She still didn’t call when she started sweating and vomiting. Instead, she took two aspirin, an act she later learned had saved her life.

“I learned my lesson that it doesn’t matter what we are faced with, we have to engage and listen to our bodies,” Krolikowski said. 

The Tuesday night presentation was hosted by the Huntington Woods Women’s League and the Huntington Woods Public Library.

The event also featured little red dress designs by five students from the International Academy of Design and Technology in Troy. Guests voted for their favorites. 

Justin Lindley of Sterling Heights won the design contest.

“I’m so shocked,” beamed Lindley, who recently finished an internship with tailor Dottie Popp at in Berkley.

Lindley’s A-line dress was inspired by Helen Mirren’s dress in the movie Red. Lindley won a $200 education grant, courtesy of Deloitte, and her little red dress will tour Metro Detroit venues on the Go Red Dress Tour, sponsored by Deloitte. Lindley’s design also will grace the catwalk Thursday at the Go Red Luncheon at the MGM Grand Detroit. Tickets are still available for $175.

Dr. Pamela Marcovitz, director of Ministrelli Women’s Heart Center at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, also was on hand to provide health facts to help women reduce their chances of heart disease.

Marcovitz said 80 percent of heart disease is preventable with proper diet and exercise. She stressed that women should eat a diet low in cholesterol, sugar and salt. She also upped the ante for exercise. Women should perform physical activity that raises their heart rate, just so they can still comfortably talk, for at least 45 minutes per day.

She also urged women to call 911 at the first sign of a heart attack: pain in the arm, jaw, chest or back, shortness of breath and heartburn, especially if it is heightened by activity.

“Women take care of other people before they take care of themselves,” Marcovitz said.

Yet she lobbied to change that. Marcovitz said women have the power to create change and take control of their health.

More information on how to make a powerful change in your health is available at Go Red for Women: Speak up to Save Lives.