World Heart Day 2012 : Focus on Women and Children

 
 This year our efforts will focus on protecting the hearts of women and children through heart-healthy actions. 

 This year, World Heart Day is even more significant given that at the 65th World Health Assembly in May 2012, governments from 194 countries agreed to the first-ever global mortality target on non-communicable diseases (NCDs – including CVD, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases) and made a commitment to reduce premature NCD deaths by 25 per cent by 2025.
  Since CVD accounts for nearly half of the 36 million deaths due to NCDs, we have a major role to play in achieving this target. 

This year in continuation from our 2011 theme of home heart health we will make 2012 the year of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention among women and children because:

 Women/children and CVD are not synonymous:

• CVD is commonly considered an “older persons” and a “man’s” disease
• Women underestimate their CVD risk; even though almost half of the 17.3 million annual deaths occur in women 

Children are particularly at risk, since they have little control over their environment and can be limited in choices to live heart­-healthily 
Unless action is taken to enable heart-­healthy activity, the children of today are at increased CVD risk later in life
Women/mothers are often the « gate keeper » to their family’s health hence a key influencer in keeping their hearts healthy.

Links:
http://www.world-heart-federation.org 
Take action  http://www.world-heart-federation.org/what-we-do/awareness/world-heart-day/take-action/
 

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Faith Complex: Islamic Feminism and the Blue Bra

Muslim feminist Asra Nomani visited Faith Complex to discuss how the infamous “Blue Bra” video has reversed honor/shame categories in the Islamic world.

During the Tahrir Square uprisings in Cairo, onlookers captured this extremely disturbing video of Egyptian military police brutalizing a female protester, dragging her along the street so that her blue bra becomes visible in the course of the beating. The incident sparked a wave of solidarity across Egypt and the unnamed “blue bra girl” has become an icon and rallying cry. Crucially, the Blue Bra Revolution also turns the spotlight on what the role of women will be in the regimes arising out of the Arab Spring.

Noted Muslim feminist, journalist, and author Asra Nomani returns to Faith Complex in this interview with first-time host and School of Foreign Service student Ghazi bin Hamed. Don’t miss Asra’s analysis of the Blue Bra movement, the future of women’s rights in Egypt, and the paradox of Islamic feminism.

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8 March - International Women's Day

EMPOWER RURAL WOMEN –  END HUNGER AND POVERTY.

“Invest in rural women. Eliminate discrimination against them in law and in practice. Ensure that policies respond to their needs. Give them equal access to resources. Provide rural women with a role in decision-making.”

                                                                                            Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

     Recognizing the critical role and contribution of rural women, the theme of International Women’s Day 2012 is Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty.
     Key contributors to global economies, rural women play a critical role in both developed and developing nations — they enhance agricultural and rural development, improve food security and can help reduce poverty levels in their communities. In some parts of the world, women represent 70 percent of the agricultural workforce, comprising 43 percent of agricultural workers worldwide.

     Estimates reveal that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30 percent, lifting 100-150 million out of hunger.

     Healthcare, education, gender inequality and limited access to credit, however, have posed a number of challenges for rural women. Further, the global food and economic crisis and climate change have aggravated the situation. It is estimated that 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women and girls. Yet, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates reveal that productivity gains from ensuring equal access to fertilizers, seeds and tools for women could reduce the number of hungry people by between 100 million and 150 million.

via @UN.org
http://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/
http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2012/02/unleashing-the-potential-of-rural-women-to-fight-poverty/

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Vandals Attack Canadian Salon Over Battered-Woman Ad

       The owners of a hair salon in Canada have received death threats following an ad campaign featuring battered women, with a promise of making them look good again.
      The Daily Mail reports that Fluid Hair in Edmonton has been vandalized, as people are outraged that it would dare to use domestic violence to advertise its services.
Graffiti was found Thursday morning (Aug 25th  )on the back entrance of the Fluid hair salon. Lavender paint was splashed across the door. A message stenciled on paper and pasted to two back windows read, "This is art that is wrongly named violence, that was violence that was wrongly named art." The two sections were connected by a hot-pink arrow.
       The salon came under fire this week over an ad from February depicting a woman, elegantly dressed, sitting on a couch with a black eye. A man stands behind her holding a necklace. The ad's slogan reads, "Look good in all you do."

"Somebody had spilled paint and spray painted, and glued offensive messages to the windows of the salon," in addition to the death threats and hate mail, said Edmonton police Sgt. Rick Evans.

      The salon went so far as to comment on one of the ads on its Facebook page, saying the model is the "hottest battered woman I’ve ever laid my eyes upon."
       Salon owner Sarah Cameron said she doesn't see anything offensive in the ads, that she considers them art.
"It might strike a chord, but as the way our society and community is getting, we keep tailoring everything because everyone is getting so sensitive," she said.
"Anyone who has a connection or a story behind anything can be upset or have an opinion. We are not trying to attack anyone. We wanted to push limits," she said, adding, "You see the picture, you think it’s a nice photo and then you see the controversy. We just like art, and it’s also objective."
But a coordinator at a local women's shelter found nothing artistic about it.

"It glamorizes domestic violence. The ad is disturbing and chilling," said Jan Reimer of the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelter. "They may have had the best of intentions, but I don’t think they thought it out much in terms of what the message is. It seems like this is an ad for domestic violence."

Related articles

• Hair salon vandalized in wake of controversial ad (thestar.com)
• Vandals attack Edmonton salon over battered-woman ad (canada.com)
• Domestic Violence Beautified? (hudabeauty.com)
• Edmonton hair salon's black-eyed ad draws fire from women’s groups (theglobeandmail.com)

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Killing Us Softly 3 : Advertising's Image of Women

"As timely and important as ever. . .A must for everyone who cares about media literacy and gender equity."-- Susan Douglas | author, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up With the Mass Media

    Jean Kilbourne continues her groundbreaking analysis of advertising's depiction of women in this most recent update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series. In fascinating detail, Kilbourne decodes an array of print and television advertisements to reveal a pattern of disturbing and destructive gender stereotypes. Her analysis challenges us to consider the relationship between advertising and broader issues of culture, identity, sexism, and gender violence.

Includes a bonus 25-minute interview with Jean Kilbourne.

Sections:
Does the beauty ideal still tyrannize women? |
Does advertising still objectify women's bodies? |
Are the twin themes of liberation and weight control still linked? |
Is sexuality still presented as women's main concern? |
Are young girls still sexualized? |
Are grown women infantilized? |
Are images of male violence against women still used to sell products?

Jean Kilbourne

Jean Kilbourne is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on alcohol and tobacco advertising and the image of women in advertising. Her films, slide lectures and television appearances have been seen by millions of people throughout the world. She was named by The New York Times Magazine as one of the three most popular speakers on college campuses today.

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Drop in Breast Cancer Among White Women May Have Stalled

Many American women abandoned hormone replacement therapy after a 2002 study found the treatment was tied to higher breast cancer risk. A sharp drop in breast cancer incidence among whites was observed soon after. However, a new study suggests that the 2002-2003 decline in breast cancer incidence among white women did not continue through 2007. The data suggests that the drop in breast cancers linked to women abandoning hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has now bottomed out.

Breast cancer rates among U.S. white women fell by about 7 percent between 2002 and 2003 after the release in 2002 of findings from the Women's Health Initiative study that linked HRT with an increased risk of breast cancer. To examine whether that trend has continued, American Cancer Society and U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) researchers reviewed breast cancer data collected from 2000 to 2007 by NCI Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) registries across the country.

The analysis revealed that the sharp decline in breast cancer rates among white women that occurred between 2002 and 2003 did not continue between 2003 and 2007. Instead, breast cancer rates among white women remained relatively stable from 2003 to 2007. "Postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy certainly had accounted for an increase in the incidence of developing a breast cancer. The use of postmenopausal HRT had sharply declined after multiple reports proved this relationship," noted one expert, Dr. Sharon M. Rosenbaum-Smith, a breast cancer specialist and surgeon at the Comprehensive Breast Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Medical Center in New York City.

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Lead Exposure May Raise Blood Pressure in Pregnancy

In pregnant women, even small amounts of lead in the blood may cause significantly higher blood pressure, new research suggests. The study of 285 pregnant women found that about one in four had a lead level higher than about 1 microgram per deciliter (1 mcg/dL) of umbilical cord blood. That's significantly lower than the safety thresholds set by the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends taking action to reduce lead exposure when pregnant women or children have a blood lead level of 5 mcg/dL.

Even so, women in the study with lead levels greater than 1 mcg/dL had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings than those with lower lead levels. The average increase was 6.9 mm Hg and 4.4 mm Hg, respectively. Though further research is needed, the findings suggest that pregnant women may be as sensitive to lead toxicity as young children, said the researchers. Prolonged high blood pressure during pregnancy can lead to complications such as preeclampsia or eclampsia, potentially deadly seizures that also can increase a woman's future risk of heart attack.

"We didn't expect to see effects at such low levels of lead exposure, but in fact we found a strong effect," Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, said in a university news release. The study did not find an association, however, between lead exposure and pregnancy-induced hypertension or preeclampsia.

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Breast Cancer Treatment May Lead to Hip Fracture

Middle-aged breast cancer survivors face an increased risk for hip fractures, a condition normally uncommon in women younger than 70, a new study has found. Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago say that this may be because early menopause caused by breast cancer treatment and the effects of breast cancer drugs could weaken the bones by the time women reach middle age. The finding came from a study of six women who had survived breast cancer and, in their early 50s, were being treated for hip fractures.

Most of the women did not have osteoporosis, but they did have lower-than-normal bone mineral density (osteopenia). This suggests that rapid changes in bone architecture caused by chemotherapy, early menopause and adjuvant breast cancer therapy may not be detected on a bone mineral density test, said Dr. Beatrice Edwards, an associate professor of medicine and orthopedic surgery and director of the bone health and osteoporosis program Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, who led the research.

The women had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, and their treatments had included lumpectomy, radiation therapy and chemotherapy with cytoxan and adriamycin for one to four years before they broke a hip. All of the women were perimenopausal at the time of the fracture. In four of the women, their breast cancer had grown in response to estrogen, and their cancer therapy had included aromatase inhibitors to prevent their bodies from making estrogen. Recent research has linked aromatase inhibitors with possible bone loss in women.

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Narrowed Leg Arteries Disable Women Faster Than Men: Study

Women coping with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in the legs appear to lose mobility faster than men, new research reveals. PAD is marked by narrowing and blockages of the peripheral arteries, usually those in the legs and pelvis. The most common symptoms are pain, cramping and tiredness in the leg or hip muscles when walking or climbing stairs symptoms that go away during rest. "The bottom line is that among those with lower extremity PAD, women have faster declines in mobility and functional performance compared to men," said study author Mary M. McDermott, a professor of medicine.

"This may be related to gender differences in calf muscle, as women tend to have less calf muscle compared to men," McDermott added. She and her colleagues report their findinsg in the Feb. 8 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Both the researchers and the American Heart Association note that an estimated 8 million American men and women are affected by lower extremity PAD, with disease prevalence being split about equally across genders. To examine whether disease progression differs among men and women, between 2002 and 2009 McDermott and her team tracked the progress of 380 male and female patients with PAD of the legs in the Chicago area.

All the participants were 59 and older. Over a four-year period, annual mobility assessments were conducted during which each patient was asked to complete a quarter mile, six-minute walk, as well as a four-minute speed test, to observe the development of disability. Changes in calf muscle measurements and characteristics were also noted, alongside knee extension strength. Overall, the research team determined that after adjusting for age, women fared more poorly than men over the course of the study. As the study period unfolded, they noted that women ended up walking less per week and had more difficulty walking the quarter-mile.

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