Retiree and Jackson-native Carliss O'Banner was one of the attendees who's currently living with cardiovascular disease. What she calls "cardiac mishaps" are common in her family, but she thinks understanding heart health is also important for those who don’t carry similar risk factors.
“It is affecting everybody, so that's why it's important to be educated on what's going on with yourself and what's going on with the disease in general,” O’Banner said. “So that no matter who you are you can help others and take care of yourself.”
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Mississippi , and the state also has the highest overall death rate in the country. High rates of diabetes, hypertension and obesity are major contributing factors to these poor outcomes. These conditions are also major contributors to the state's high rate of maternal death.
Lindsay and Brian Ham were also at Friday’s event to share the story of their 11-year-old daughter, Addie, who was born with a rare heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Addie received a successful heart transplant in Texas two years ago.
Since then, the Greens have worked to raise awareness around the prevalence of congenital heart defects in children and advocate for further cardiovascular research. Lindsay Ham thinks there’s a lot of work to be done in Mississippi to educate people on how to change their habits around diet and exercise to prevent the onset of cardiovascular issues.
“For some people it seems like common sense, but, you know, they're a little bit harder to achieve than you think they are when you get involved in your daily life,” Ham said.
Friday's event was the 21st Go Red for Women Luncheon held in Jackson. Medical professionals and advocates say the understanding of and treatments for cardiovascular issues have advanced dramatically over the last two decades.
“Years ago, someone had a heart attack and it was a death sentence,” Jennifer Hopping, Executive Director of the American Heart Association, said. “Now, so many people have heart issues and they do well thanks to advancements that have been made, and heart disease is largely preventable.”
While Mississippi is an outlier among states when it comes to the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, public health advancements cut the death rate for the disease by more than one-third between 2000 and 2018.
