I asked my mother what was on her mind with the prompt in front of us. Currently, she is in the hospital in Phoenix for pneumonia in both of her lungs due to being bedridden from a complication from surgery a week ago on her chest. In this complicated, sad, and in my words, sketchy state, I predicted she would send me on a walk thinking about drugs or depression.

Barbara Streisand, oh wooo oh woo oh woo, or however that funny song goes came up. In actuality, she said her name and went on to say to raise awareness of her women’s heart foundation. The foundation she started and the namesake of the hospital that she is a part of a study for her microvascular disease that mainly affects women. See their mission statement below. I could recognize my mother in this struggle with a simple walk up the mountain above the house we lived in when we last lived. She wanted a single shot of the Prayer flags on the flag up top. My mother asked for nothing more than to apricate others the freedom to move outdoors while I do that same. Comically she said not to bother others as that would ruin her own walk.

On the walk, I mostly remarked about how much easier the hike felt compared to when I was younger. That was until a point where it was so steep that its relative difficulty was apparent yet again. The location of this mountain is near an area I only visited during the times I lived next to it. It is as if I have avoided it. I walked and thought of why immediately, the struggle of our lives at that point. But this was about her current struggle, so I thought of what seemed like endless years of struggles for her. Her health has been on the life-and-death edge since we lived in a house near this mountaintop you see below. Her diagnosis of serious illness back then has only transformed into a longer list of such issues. I have the painful weight of the last phone call with each call, and each year it goes on, thankfully. I get to the top as she is in the ICU; I text her the photo with only a crying emoji paired with a thank you.

I have raised tens of thousands through various charities on a whim as I can make the physical effort and thrive in organizations, yet this one, I could feel the effect on my mother as we both internally processed a time while she can appreciate that I can at least continue the adventures of our family.

The Study she is a part of at Cedar Sinai has covered her hundreds of thousands of dollars in ER trips for chest pain treatments, most recently having her a part of a study that has had huge progress in reducing the pain.

< About the Women’s Heart Alliance >

Heart disease and stroke are women’s #1 killer, causing more deaths than all cancers combined.

“It’s time for change. It’s time for equity.

1 death every 80 seconds. 1,080 deaths a day. 400,000 deaths a year.

Our Vision

A world in which every woman can achieve heart health. 

At the Women’s Heart Alliance, our mission is to prevent women from needlessly facing and dying from heart disease and stroke. That’s why we’re focused on an area long neglected in research, prevention, and care: The differences between men and women.

Many people are still surprised to learn that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the United States (US). In fact, heart disease kills more women in the US each year than all cancers combined. And women are at greater risk of dying in the year following a heart attack than are men: 1 in 4 women will die within one year of their heart attack, compared to 1 in 5 men.

When it comes to heart disease and stroke, women and men are not the same. Women’s hearts are smaller. Their risk factors can be different. Their symptoms can be different. Their response to therapies can be different.

Yet, most of the research on heart disease and stroke is conducted on men. Most of our diagnostic tools were validated on men. Most treatments were tested on men. And often, health professionals are unaware of these disparities — and many patients are, too.

We at the WHA draw attention to these sex differences and promote activities that raise awareness and drive change. We are a unique collaboration between two of America’s leading medical institutions — the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Through our focused, strategic efforts and our innovative awareness campaigns, we aim to dramatically reduce the number of women suffering and dying from heart disease and stroke.

Our Mission

Stop women’s cardiovascular disease — the No. 1 killer of women in the United States today — by promoting gender equity in research, prevention, awareness and treatment.

We want to change research practices, so that women are equally represented in the lab and the clinic as research subjects and as investigators.

We want to improve the sex-specific quality of care women receive for their heart health — so that every woman can access the support she needs, and every health care provider knows how to provide it.

We want to empower women to take their heart health into their own hands — especially younger women and minorities — through access to screening, detection, treatment and prevention measures. Eighty percent of heart disease and strokes can be prevented by preventive therapy such as treatment of high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. Quitting smoking, eating a healthy diet and physical activity also help. For those women who do suffer a heart attack or stroke, we want to increase their odds of survival.

We want meaningful policy change to make all of these goals possible.

With so many women’s lives at stake, we have to make this a priority — for the mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, and friends we love. It will make for a better, healthier future for us all.”