1. Staff: Sandoval, Lina
Section: News
With life being so busy and hectic trying to accomplish daily tasks and responsibilities that come
along with being a student, making time to go to the doctors ‘can be almost impossible. The
members of Women’s Heart Alliance know this and that is why they reach out to Universities
throughout southern California and collaborate with them in hopes of reaching out to students
and assuring that they have the opportunity to get their hearts health checked out, and also to
enhance their knowledge regarding their hearts condition and their overall health.
“knowing your number’s is extremely important, it is a crucial part of your heart and plays a
large roll in assuring that your heart remains in good health,” said Melissa Westbey the lead
screener for Women’s Heart Alliance.
Although the event was open to the entire student body, their main target were women,
considering the fact that women are the ones primarily affected by heart disease.
“Heart disease kills women once every minute, so it really is a big issue,” said Westbey.
The heart is the most important organ in the human body, by taking necessary precaution’s you
can help prevent unnecessary heart conditions that might be detectible in time if one takes time
to learn about the necessary health risks and prevention procedures. According to
goredforwomen.org cardiovascular diseases and stroke cause 1 in 3 women’s deaths each year,
killing approximately one woman every 80 seconds.
Along with conducting heart check up’s, the members of Women’s Heart Alliance basically
conducted a full medical screening for all interested and willing students, checking a variety of
health related issues.
“Were out here doing practically a full Bio-metric screening, what we are testing today is your
good cholesterol, bad cholesterol as well as your blood sugar along with checking body mass
index, blood pressure, waist circumference which is used to see if there could possibly be a
metabolic issue ,” said Westbey.
We consistently hear that one way to prevent a lot of these heart related conditions is by taking
necessary precautions, eating healthy, exercising etc. But let’s face it, with today’s busy
schedules it is a miracle if you get to eat an entire meal a day, let alone an entire healthy meal.
“A lot of time’s what causes a large number of these heart related issues are processed foods and
too much red meat in your diet, a lot of times when people have high cholesterol that runs in
their family, unfortunately it is the bad cholesterol some people just naturally create more plaque
in there systems, which is why it is so important to have a healthy died and exercise,” said
Wesbey.
This is not the first time that this event has taken place at CSULA, they put on an event back in
October during the fall quarter, they had such a good turn out that they decided to conduct one
this quarter as well.

2. “We were here back in October, we saw roughly around 275-300 hundred people, and we even
though it was raining some of the students were willing to stay out here in the rain with us, so
this time around I came prepared expecting to screen at least 300 students,” said Wetbey.
As students sat and filled out the necessary forms providing all necessary information for the
screening while waiting to be called in for their testing, one student expressed her appreciation
that something that like this was available.
“It is a great idea, and it is great that it was available to us, it was very informative and it
provided me with good tips regarding cholesterol,” said Tandis Shams an Organizational
Communication and Public Relation’s Senior at California State University, Los Angeles.
Not too many young adults really stop to reflect on their health, whether it be that they believe to
be invincible or simply just have too much going on trying to be a productive member of society
by chasing their education, so this allows them the opportunity to take a break, reflect and take
action.
“I this this is a genius idea, it is very helpful and it helps you engage and reflect on your health,”
said RJ Amalfard a Communication and Public Relation’s Senior at CSULA.
It is good to know that CSULA faculty as well as the members from Women’s Heart Alliance
care about the students at CSULA enough to take the time to organize an event such as this one,
and it is good to know that they hope to have a minimum of two events once the quarter system
switches to semesters.
“I am hoping that since we did one in October last quarter and one this quarter I am hoping that it
will be a continuous thing, because students are always going to be changing,” said Westby.
When asked what advice Miss Wesbey had to offer there were only a few words she had to say.
“Get tested, hashtag know your numbers, that is my biggest thing, it really just gives you a base
line where to work off of.”
Usually, everyone is really excited about their health and changing their dietary ways during the
beginning of the year, but it is extremely important to maintain that excitement and
determination throughout the year.
“I know a lot of times people are more excited to see us in the new year because everybody
wants to start a new diet, my personal thing is just moderation on everything,” said Westby.
With such a great turn out this quarter as well as last quarter, one can only anticipate to see how
the next event put on by Women’s Heart Alliance will turn out.