“One out of two of you women will be impacted by cardiovascular disease in your lifetime. It is the leading killer of women and closely held secret, for reasons I don’t know.”

This is a great TedTalk at TedX Women by Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, titled The single biggest health threat women face.

What I really appreciate is that she doesn’t  focus solely on awareness-raising, but actual research on women and heart disease, which is a refreshing change. There’s only so many times I can hear about diet, exercise, and healthy choices. How about real science, too?

“As you know, the personal is political, and not enough is being done about this . . . that’s not happening, and it’s time.”  Amen, sister.

Dr. Bairey Merz also discusses how diagnostic tests such as EKG, stress testing, and even angiograms (developed over the last 50 years) are very good at recognizing male pattern heart disease, but less so women’s. This is an issue near and dear to my, ahem, heart.

I could tell you more, but she’ll do it better. Take 16 minutes to watch.

Dr. Bairey Merz’ is a professor and director of the Women’s Heart Center and the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.  She also holds the Women’s Guild Endowed Chair in Women’s Health and is the current chair of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored WISE (Women’s Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation) initiative.

It feels good to have her in my corner.