The cardiovascular health of women is a concern at the Association des -Cardiaques de la -Mauricie. This is why the organization has set up a brand new conference dedicated to prevention, accompanied by a mobile screening clinic for risk factors.
The primary mission of this brand new conference is to inform, but also to support women on their cardiovascular health.
“We’ve been thinking about it for a few years because at the Association, we have several components, both in primary and secondary prevention and in rehabilitation. This is a component that we wanted to integrate into our service offer because we know that the onset of cardiovascular disease is different from that in humans. Moreover, it is the leading cause of death among women, more than breast cancer. We wanted to make women aware of taking care of themselves, while providing them with tools and making them aware of how to better recognize the risk factors and factors predisposing to cardiovascular disease,” explains kinesiologist -Maryline -Roy, who will be at the animation of the said conference.
“We are going to discuss the distinction of the factors of appearance of cardiovascular disease, therefore the symptoms which go a little more unnoticed in women. Instead of having rather atypical pain, the symptoms will be less striking in women, and we will talk a lot more about great fatigue. We will see everything that is related to pregnancy and menopause also because there is still a modulation of the cardiovascular rhythm at that time. »
During the conference, the main risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems and the importance of maintaining healthy lifestyles will be discussed. A mobile clinic will also be on site during the events.
“I will travel with nursing and kinesiologist colleagues and we will be able to do capillary blood glucose (a fingertip blood glucose test), blood pressure measurements and offer various health questionnaires to identify risks. It will allow people to have a slight insight into where they stand in relation to the risks”, explains -Mme -Roy.
The first conference will be offered to members of the Association des -Cardiaques de la -Mauricie, on 1is november. In March, a conference for the general public will be accessible to the entire population.
“We will then visit organizations that cater to women and collaborating organizations. We don’t just want to work with people who have had a recent event, but we also want to work upstream of cardiovascular disease. There is a lot of known literature on the subject, but we still talk about it too little,” she adds.
The Association has more than 600 members, ranging from the -South Shore to the -MRC des -Chenaux, -Shawinigan, and even the -MRCs of -Mékinac and -Maskinongé. In order to set up such a project, she was able to benefit from financial assistance from the Social Development Fund of the -City of -Trois-Rivières.
To find out more about the Association: www.assocdescardiaques.com/.