Local women are invited to join the Working Women's Forum on Wednesday, February 15, when Dr Lisa Freed will present "Women and Heart Disease: How are Women Different?"

Heart disease is the number one killer of women, causing one in three deaths each year - approximately one woman every minute.

But cardiovascular disease does not affect all women alike, and the warning signs for women are not the same as with men.

Dr Freed has been a practicing cardiologist in the New Haven area since 1999. She is also currently director of the Women and Heart Disease Program at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and an assistant clinical professor at Yale School of Medicine.

She attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed her residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical School. She then completed her fellowship in cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School.

Dr Freed will discuss heart disease with a focus on the differences in women. She will:

*Take a quick look at awareness of heart disease in women;

*Review of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease in women;

*Focus on hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cigarette smoking, and diabetes; and

*Discuss the symptoms of a heart attack and treatment of coronary artery disease.

Anyone attending is encouraged to bring a friend.

The Working Women's Forum, an association of local professionals and entrepreneurs, meets at The Villa Restaurant, 4 Riverside Road in Sandy Hook, on the third Wednesday of the month. Networking and light dinner begins at 6 pm, followed by the guest speaker.

Program and dinner fee is $$25 (10 for members), along with a cash bar. The group gratefully accepts canned food, and personal health and beauty items for Newtown's FAITH Food Pantry.

To register, contact WWF President Pat Marlin at rsvp@workingwomensforum.net or call 203-426-7022.

[mappress mapid="577"]