Novartis sponsoriza Queen Latifah's mom en apoyo a "heart failure awareness"

Award-winning actress, singer, songwriter and producer Queen Latifah attributes much of her success in life to her mother, Rita Owens. “My mom has always been my rock. She’s stronger than anyone I’ve ever known,” she says. When Ms. Owens was diagnosed with heart failure10 years ago, Queen describes the experience as life-changing – “Hearing the word ‘failure’ associated with my mom’s health was really scary.” 

Ms. Owens refused to let the diagnosis bring her down, and remained hopeful and positive. She rallied Queen and her entire family to learn all they could about heart failure and how to manage the condition. In support of Ms. Owens, the whole family made small changes in their lives to be healthier, including changes to their diet. Queen and other members of the family also join Ms. Owens on check-ups to participate in discussions with her doctors and to help keep a close watch on her health. 

Inspired by Ms. Owens, Queen says that keeping a positive attitude and always being supportive are key to helping a loved one manage heart failure. She also wants to stress that for caregivers, it’s important to care for your own health as well. 

Queen says, “You can’t change the past, but you can change the future.” She wants everyone to be inspired by her mother, and to know that heart failure is something that people can “rise above” with education, support and by making small healthy changes in their life.

She and her mother have joined the American Heart Association’s Rise Above Heart Failure movement to spread the word about heart failure and to help others understand the signs and symptoms of the condition, and how to manage it. Rise Above Heart Failure is nationally supported by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and was created in collaboration with experts across the heart failure community. 
The American Heart Association plans to partner across the community to change the way heart failure impacts the country by:

• Increasing awareness of heart failure, its symptoms and treatments, 
• Increasing understanding and dialogue about heart failure, 
• Inspiring people with heart failure to take a more active role in their care, 
• Encouraging people to make small changes that can lead to healthier lifestyles and 
• Bringing together an alliance of influential organizations to collectively support a goal of reducing heart failure hospitalization rates by 10% and increasing awareness and understanding of HF by 10% by 2020. (Ver)

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Queen Latifah and Her 'Gangster' Mom