UPDATED: UC Davis goes red for heart awareness

by Dave Jones
January 17, 2014

UPDATE 1 p.m. Jan. 17: The T-shirts are now on sale at all UC Davis Stores and online. Pricing information below.

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Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi prefers the color blue on Aggie Pride Fridays, but on Feb. 7 she’s switching to red to promote heart health.

She won’t be alone. It’ll be National Wear Red Day, and, as declared by the chancellor — in partnership with UC Davis cardiologist Amparo Villablanca and design lecturer Adele Zhang — UC Davis Wears Red Day.

• We’ll have red T-shirts featuring the logo you see here.

• We’ll try to beat the Guinness World Record for the largest number of people in a heart formation. (Wear your new T-shirt!)

• We’ll have a Battle Heart Disease Fair, organized by the Alpha Pi Sigma sorority. Elsewhere on the Davis campus, departments will showcase their work against heart disease.

• We’ll have red dresses, designed by UC Davis students. (You can see the dresses during The Power of Red: Cocktails & Couture, a fundraiser at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.)

A silent enemy

As you can see, the schedule is full of red — red for heart health, reminding people that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women and men.

The red dress angle serves as extra reminder for women, for whom heart disease is often a silent enemy — something the UC Davis Women’s Cardiovascular Medicine Program has been fighting for 20 years, as the first such program in the nation dedicated to women’s heart health.

Typically, women exhibit symptoms at a later age than men, said Villablanca, director of the Women's Cardiovascular Medicine Program. "Yet all women are at risk, no woman is immune, and deaths are increasing for younger women," she said.

The symptoms are often more subtle, making detection and diagnosis difficult. “As a result, cardiovascular disease in women is frequently underdiagnosed and undertreated, and many women fail to receive interventions that could save their lives," according to the program's website.

“The key to reversing this trend lies in preventing the risk factors that contribute to heart disease — and increasing awareness of new therapies which can lower the incidence of the disease.”

More information on women’s cardio health.

Record-breaking heart formation

The heart formation will take place on the Hutchison Intramural Field, where organizers are hoping to see some 12,000 people (from the campus community and the surrounding community), enough to beat the existing record of 11,166, set in February 2010 in the state of Nuevo León, Mexico.

The organizers of the UC Davis attempt are asking people to start gathering at 11:30 a.m. on the Hutchison field (please walk or bike). And you don’t have to miss lunch — Sodexo will be selling to-go meals, with heart healthy options.

The heart formation will be made inside a cordoned-off area; people will be counted as they enter. An official picture will be taken at about 12:30.

If you’re looking to wear one of the new UC Davis red T-shirts, they’re on sale at all UC Davis Stores (including Sacramento) and online, or you can buy one the day of the event on the Hutchison field. Unisex, short-sleeved shirts in adult and youth sizes are $5, and long-sleeved shirts and women's V-necks (short-sleeved) are $8 — and $1 from each sale goes to the Women’s Cardiovascular Medicine Program.

For departmental orders, contact Carol Swafford or Sarah Brodberg by email.

Here’s another bonus, good on Feb. 7 only: Wear your shirt and you’ll get discounts at all UC Davis Stores and in all dining commons (for heart healthy meals, of course).

You don’t need the special UC Davis shirt to be in the human heart formation, but you should wear something red. Just don’t forget to show up — remember, we need 12,000 people!

Afterward, you’re invited to The Pavilion, next door to the Hutchison IM Field, for the third annual Battle Heart Disease Fair, from 1 to 4 p.m. Everyone is invited to learn more about heart health, from various organizations, at information tables and health screenings around the room. The program also includes a performance by the Nigerian Student Dance Group.

“We want to educate ourselves and others in order to reduce heart related deaths,” said Maria “Lupe” Espinoza, a senior, one of the fair’s main coordinators. The other is Yesenia Salazar, a junior, who, like Espinoza, is majoring in neurobiology, physiology and behavior.

Their Latina-interest sorority, Alpha Pi Sigma, is dedicated to raising awareness of heart disease and how to prevent it in the Latino community. “The goal is to create a heart health movement that strives to raise awareness among Latina women by encouraging them to adopt a healthier quality of life,” Espinoza said.

The program includes a welcome from Chancellor Katehi, and a talk by Jessica M. Núñez de Ybarra, a physician and public health medical officer supervisor at the California Department of Public Health, addressing common heart-related illnesses and preventive measures. Ybarra graduated from the UC Davis School of Medicine in 1997 and volunteers as a clinical faculty member in the university’s Master of Public Health Program.

As president of the Sacramento Latino Medical Association, Núñez has joined forces with the Women’s Cardiovascular Medicine Program to conduct the Cardiovascular Disease Community-Based Preventive Intervention for High-Risk Latina Women in Sacramento County.

Red dresses

For national purposes, the “red dress” is a symbol, a pin to go on your sweater or lapel — “a red alert that inspires women to take action to protect their heart.” UC Davis design majors turn the symbol into reality, in their red dress creations.

Each year’s new collection — five so far, 2010-14 — debuts at the Women’s Heart Care Education and Awareness Forum for Community Leaders, presented by the Women’s Cardiovascular Medicine Program.

The red dress is “a powerful symbol for raising awareness that heart disease is the leading killer of women,” said Zhang, who works with the red dress designers.

Villablanca said the student designs are particularly useful in getting the heart health message to a younger demographic. Indeed, said Carly Sandstrom, ASUCD president, "We are at the age when we need to be practicing heart healthy activities, especially women."

The 2014 Women’s Heart Care Education and Awareness Forum, and red dress debut, will be the same day as UC Davis Wears Red Day.

That evening, The Power of Red: Cocktails & Couture will be the venue for a viewing of all 25 dresses made over the last five years. Some of the dresses will be modeled; the others will be displayed on dress forms. And you can see all of the dresses in a new book, Red Dress: Design for Heart Health.

Cocktails and Couture will run from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Mondavi Center’s Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby. The evening will feature a signature cocktail (and a mocktail, too), heart healthy hors d’oeuvres, and jazz by the Doug Pauly Trio.

Ticket price is $100 per person, with proceeds going to the Women’s Cardiovascular Medicine Program and the Department of Design. For more information, contact Ceremonies and Special Events, (530) 754-2262.