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Every day, Riolla Riobe walks to work, and throughout the day, she passes by the elevators and takes the stairs instead. These healthy choices were not always part of her daily routine, but they resulted from the knowledge she gained in the “Heart Healthy Living” workshop for African-American women, sponsored by BWH’s Cardiovascular Wellness Service.
The six-week pilot program, which began in April, educates and empowers women in the Boston community to lead heart-healthy lives. It is open to community members, patients and BWHers alike.
“I used to think that exercising meant working out for an hour or more every day, but this program taught me that incorporating a small form of exercise, like walking, also counts,” said Riobe, a research coordinator in the Occupational Health Service. “I wanted to learn how to eat better, maintain my health and incorporate exercise into my day. I definitely learned all of that and more.”
Other programs in the community are similar in terms of information shared; however, they don’t incorporate physical activity into lectures, said Aileen Sauris, NP, of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, and co-facilitator of the workshop. This is where the need for the workshop arose, she says.
“African-American women have the highest risk for heart disease, but 90 percent of risk factors are preventable,” said Sauris. “There are some factors you cannot control, like age and family history, but others—such as smoking, weight and hypertension—are controllable. Our workshop showed these women that they can lead heart healthy lives.”
Each week, Sauris and Patricia Timmons, a Cardiovascular Medicine project coordinator, paired clinical education with fitness, with every session focusing on a different component of heart health, such as nutrition, cardiovascular exercise or relaxation techniques.
“One week, we covered sleep and stress management, then did yoga as the fitness component,” said Timmons. “We did this so the women could see the relevance of each session and how they could incorporate the knowledge into their lives.”
Added Sauris: “There’s an element of empowerment that comes with getting up and moving,” she said.
Setting realistic goals was also crucial to achieving real heart health success. “We focused on teaching ‘SMART’ goals, which stands for specific, measureable, adjustable, realistic and time-based,” said Sauris. “By setting goals with these values in mind, participants could see and track their success in small, manageable steps.”
Based on the success of the program, Sauris and Timmons launched a second cardiovascular wellness workshop series in early May, also targeted toward African-American women. In the fall, Sauris and Timmons are planning to translate the pilot program into Spanish for Hispanic women, who also have a high risk of heart disease.
If you’re interested in future Heart Healthy Living workshops, contact the Cardiovascular Wellness Service at (617) 582-4809.