In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Proclamation 3566 designated February as American Heart Month. Today, this global movement has an additional focus: “Go Red for Women,” which encourages everyone to wear red in order to end heart disease and stroke, specifically in women. Go Red for Women launched in 2004 to raise awareness of the fact that heart disease kills more women than all forms of cancer combined. “Even after 17 years, we must continue to educate women about their number one silent killer, because the public misperception that heart disease and heart attacks happen more often to men than women continues,” says Lorna F. Stewart, M.D., a board-certified family medicine physician in Naples who founded Lorna Stewart, M.D. and Associates, a Ms.Medicine concierge practice. 

A Ms.Medicine primary care medicine model for women offers health care to manage chronic health issues.  With a focus on overall wellness from the perspective of a holistic approach to lifestyle management and prevention, Stewart’s special interests lie in cardiovascular disease prevention, geriatric women’s health, osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment, in addition to cancer risk assessment, as well as stroke and diabetes education and management. 

Stewart agrees with the results of a report in The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal. “Although deaths from cardiovascular causes overall have decreased in the past three decades, women in many parts of the world still have worse outcomes than men after acute coronary syndromes such as major cerebrovascular events and post-intervention complications.”

“For years, researchers and physicians thought all heart attack symptoms looked the same in men and women. Now we know this isn’t true. While men tend to experience the classic crushing chest pain, difficulty breathing and irregular heartbeat, women’s symptoms differ and can often be more subtle. They tend to experience symptoms such as nausea, extreme fatigue, lightheadedness and dizziness, sweating and pain in one or both arms, jaw, upper back and neck. These symptoms are frequently mistaken for other conditions,” says Stewart, who explains that one of the main reasons for not knowing to what extent physiological differences drive these disparities is that the majority of existing clinical evidence is from research conducted on men. 

“The founder of Ms.Medicine, Dr. Lisa Larkin, is a champion for women’s health. She recognizes that health care isn’t a one-size-fits-all, and that women have unique needs. Just as children should not be treated medically as small adults, Dr. Larkin realizes that taking care of women is not like taking care of men,” advises the native Neapolitan, who explains that Ms.Medicine is a network of physicians in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, as well as Holland, Michigan, and Fairfax, Virginia. “I’m the first in Naples, and having access to the medical histories of MS.Medicine patients in Naples who are also Ms.Medicine patients in those cities is an invaluable tool. Another invaluable opportunity is watching lectures together every Monday. We learn from each other, from roundtable discussions and from guest speakers that address topics which we primary care physicians frequently encounter in taking care of women.”

Presently, Ms.Medicine is offering a reduced annual concierge membership fee for the first 50 founding members.

Ms.Medicine is located at 9150 Galleria Ct., Ste. 200, in Naples. For more information call 239-580-6390 or visit LornaStewartMd.com.