Dr. Marianne J. Legato, Pioneer in Women's Health, to Discuss How Professional Women Can Maximize Their Potential by Understanding Gender Differences
Epstein Becker & Green sponsors "How can women professionals make 2008 more productive and less stressful?" coinciding with American Heart Month
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With February proclaimed as "American Heart Month," the Women’s Initiative of national law firm Epstein Becker & Green is proud to sponsor a discussion by Dr. Marianne J. Lagato, M.D., F.A.C.P., an internationally renowned pioneer in the field of women's health, on the controversial trend toward gender-specific medical diagnosis and treatment, and how understanding gender differences can help professional women be more productive and healthy in 2008.
Millions of American professional women suffer from potentially serious health threats to their hearts. Dr. Legato has been a trailblazer in raising awareness that biological differences between men and women affect both the level of risk for certain diseases and their symptoms. As women increasingly serve in executive positions, on corporate boards and in other high-level positions in American business, it is seen as increasingly important that workplace stress and associated health issues and gender differences are better understood.
Heart disease typically strikes women a decade later than it does men, but it remains little known that it kills more women each year. Women have different heartbeat rhythms and are more likely to develop heart arrhythmias. Once they're a decade past menopause, more women have high blood pressure than men. Just a few years ago, such health risks for women were not adequately documented or discussed. But thanks to the medical contributions of experts such as Dr. Legato, women are beginning to understand how they can improve their health by recognizing gender differences.
Dr. Legato will speak on "Taking Biological Gender Differences to Heart to Maximize Our Full Potential," on February 27, 2008, at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, Estrela Penthouse in New York City. The $75 registration fee for the program, titled, “New Year, New You,” will be donated to the Go Red for Women Campaign of the American Heart Association. Guests will receive a complimentary copy of Dr. Legato's best-selling book "Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget," and will be served a specially designed heart-healthy menu.
Dr. Legato is an internationally renowned physician, author and founder/director of the Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University, where she works for collaboration between academic medicine and the private sector to promote research on gender-specific medicine. She is a member of the team of LLuminari health experts and has written for many publications, such as The New York Times, on women's health issues, and has been quoted in US News & World Report, Ladies' Home Journal and many other periodicals. She is also the author of many books, has received numerous awards and has appeared on television programs such as "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "The Today Show," "Good Day New York" and "Good Morning America."
Gender-specific research is rising to a position of “crucial importance in medicine,” says Dr. Legato.
“Women do not understand that heart disease kills more of them than any other illness or that the disease is different in women than it is in men,” says Dr. Legato. “There has been an increase in awareness over the past few years, but surveys report that women still do not know that heart disease, and not breast cancer, is the disease they should fear most. Much more education and outreach remains to be done.”
Dr. Legato's discussion is sponsored by the Epstein Becker & Green Women's Initiative. The mission of the Women's Initiative is to enhance the careers of professional women by providing opportunities both inside and outside the office to network, acquire skills and develop rewarding professional relationships.
“The issue of women’s health is taken very seriously at Epstein Becker & Green, where nearly half of our attorneys are women,” says Frances M. Green, a Member of the Firm at Epstein Becker & Green and a founder of its Women’s Initiative. “From my own experience and discussions with other women, I understand how a female professional can feel overwhelming stress from the simultaneous needs to support and encourage coworkers and clients, boost her own career, and heed her family members' needs. While she is at work, she may secretly feel guilty about not being at home caring for family. Conversely, when she is at home, she may feel that she is not accomplishing those things necessary to support her organization and career. When her time is stretched to the limit, trying to make time where there is none creates stress - and stress is at the root of a multitude of health problems.”
About Epstein Becker & Green
Founded in 1973, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., is a law firm with over 400 attorneys practicing in 11 offices throughout the United States - Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, Stamford and Washington D.C. The firm’s size, diversity, and global affiliations allow its attorneys to address the needs of both small entrepreneurial ventures and large multinational corporations on a worldwide basis.
EBG continues to build and expand its capabilities as a law firm focused on five core practices: Business Law, Health Care and Life Sciences, Labor and Employment, Litigation and Real Estate.
