NIH staff and volunteers filled the Clinical Center atrium Feb. 2, 2018 – known as Wear Red Day – to celebrate American Heart Month.
Coordinated by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), attendees' line danced for 30 minutes at the event to raise awareness of heart disease, which is the number one killer of both men and women in America. Research shows that being physically active can help lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.
At the event Dr. Gary Gibbons, NHLBI director, invited everyone to move more often. "There is something you can do about your heart health, it’s in your control," Dr. Gibbon said before inviting the dance instructor to show the moves on stage. "You can change the way you live, how you eat, how you become more active!"
Attendees of the Wear Red Day event were encouraged to not only improve upon their own heart health – but to inspire others to do the same by participating in a pledge to 'move with heart'. Staff, including those from Pediatrics seen above, recorded a short video demonstrating their favorite way to move, and shared it on Twitter and Instagram, using #MoveWithHeart. View more videos from staff in the Clinical Center.
Guest lecturer presents on heart failure and diabetes
Dr. E. Dale Abel (right) was the honored guest speaker at the 2018 NIH Astute Clinician Lecture on "Sugar and the Beating Heart: The Conundrum of Heart Failure in Diabetes". Dr. Jim Gilman (left), NIH Clinical Center CEO, presented the certificate to Abel in Masur Auditorium Feb. 7, 2018.
Abel is the Francois M. Abboud Chair in Internal Medicine and John B. Stokes Chair in Diabetes Research; Chair and Department Executive Officer, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine. He is internationally recognized for his research on the molecular mechanisms responsible for cardiac dysfunction in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and type 1 diabetes, and for studies of the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the development of insulin resistance, obesity, and its complications.