WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – You may have noticed more people than usual wearing red on Friday.

That’s because it is “Go Red for Women Day,” a day to promote women’s heart health.

Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We talked to a nurse practitioner about ways to lower your risk.

“We’re just not as active as we should. We’re not eating as healthy as we should. We’re not controlling our blood pressure and our cholesterol and our blood sugars well and so all of those things are risk factors for heart disease,” said Mary Hamrick, ACNP at Novant Health Heart and Vascular Institute.

The CDC said in 2020 that one out of every five deaths in women was caused by heart disease.

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