Phylicia Rashad is a woman of vast accomplishments. As an actress, she catapulted to television fame playing the role of wife and mother, Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Aside from her numerous stage credits, she is the first African American woman to win a Tony award—Broadway’s highest honor—for Best Actress in A Raisin in the Sun. The Houston, Texas native has amassed honorary awards from the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Woman, Inc. and New York Women in Film and Television. She sings alto in the gospel choir, Broadway Inspirational Voices, has tried her hand at theatre direction, and is also the mother of two grown children (a 34-year-old son and 20-year-old daughter). This past December she performed at Lincoln Center Theater in William Shakespeare’s, Cymbeline and on Feb. 25, fans can enjoy her TV work once again in an adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, to be broadcast on ABC Television.

Career aside, Rashad volunteers her time advocating for a number of nonprofit groups such as the Prasad Project, a global initiative providing disaster relief, health and development programs for disadvantaged people. Recently, she’s begun working with the Peripheral Arterial Disease Coalition. As an awareness spokesperson Rashad hopes to encourage people to know their risks for this chronic condition affecting close to 8 million Americans. She has a personal interest in this campaign. Her own family’s unfortunate medical history ­ her father, grandparents and others have died of heart attack or stroke. And all lived with some of the P.A.D. risk factors without knowing it. This legacy has much to do with Rashad’s personal quest for a long, healthy life. She neither smokes nor drinks alcohol. She does, however, imbibe in all things healthy: yoga, long walks, Pilates and good food.

Why were you drawn to this cause?
In my own life, I know how this illness impacts not only the person who has it but also the people who love them. As it relates to P.A.D. (we are talking about serious cardiovascular disease that’s characterized by poor circulation in the arteries of the legs, and the importance of this diagnosis is that poor circulation in the arteries of the legs indicates poor circulation to the heart and the brain. Now we’re talking about heart attack and stroke. If a person is aware of this condition something can be done about it. In my father’s lifetime this was not a diagnosis.

One symptom of P.A.D. is pain or heaviness in the legs. Did your father experience pain?
He had pain in his legs and it was attributed to the fact that he was a dentist and stood all day for many years. And of course, that is a factor that can make your legs tired and weary. But it’s not necessarily the whole picture.

How old was your father when he passed?
My father was 63.

Oh, too young!
You see what I mean? The first thing I thought about when I read about P.A.D. and understood the risks, was my father. I wondered: If this knowledge had been available, if we had known about it, if it had been possible for him to test for it…. because his heart attack was sudden and unexpected.

He didn’t die of complications from diabetes?
Yes, diabetes was involved in his death. People with diabetes over 50 are at greater risk for Peripheral Artery Disease, not to say everyone with diabetes over 50 has this. But people in this group are at greater risk. I make this correlation to my own family because one of my father’s sisters had an amputation of lower extremities. Now that’s a circulatory issue and the point of it is this: If you could know wouldn’t you want to? And the value of the diagnosis and treatment is that you can do something to prevent that.

Exercise is recommended, but if you’re in pain, how can you exercise?
That was my father’s premise [for not exercising after work]. He used to say, “I’m tired. I’m done and my legs hurt. I don’t want to exercise.” One of my aunts passed away in recent years of stroke and she had diabetes and she was in her 70s. When I saw her last at her home she hardly moved and I said, “Why don’t we just walk to the corner and back?” I tried to get her to just walk a little, because the doctors do advocate some form of exercise to stimulate circulation. And diet is so important. That same aunt diagnosed with diabetes had to have her sticky buns!

This is a silent disease with no visible signs. But there is a test for P.A.D.?
Yes. It’s a simple, non-invasive test (Ankle-Brachial Index, ABI) performed in the doctor’s office. It does not involve laboratory fees or heavy medical equipment or expensive machinery. But because it’s been in the shadows, it isn’t something routinely tested for, so you need to ask for it. I do want to stress this: The reason it hasn’t been tested for routinely has not to do with a problem with the doctors or malpractice. It’s to do with awareness.

Even among the medical community?
Absolutely. It wasn’t until 1998 that a study was performed. It’s like the thing that’s simplest and right in front of your face is often what escapes you. Someone asked me: “Now that you know about P.A.D. do you think about your father and experience frustration?” And no. I don’t. There’s no point in that. But what I do know is that this is valuable information that can help someone else ­ a lot of someone elses. Because for me what was more alarming is that in our country there are an estimated 8 million people with this condition and of that number almost two-thirds of those at risk don’t even know about it. Now that is alarming.

Considering your family history have you been tested?
Oh yeah and I’m healthy. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink alcohol. I’m a lucky duck!

No diabetes?
No—because of my lifestyle. My father said to my sister Debbie [famed choreographer Debbie Allen] “Keep dancing as long as you can. Keep dancing and this won’t happen to you.” He was talking about diabetes, which is a risk factor for P.A.D. When we are talking about plaque, the accumulation of plaque in arteries—we’ve known about accumulation of plaque in the arteries. What we were unaware of, what we weren’t looking at was the accumulation of plaque in the arteries of the legs. And that is an indication of poor circulation to the heart and to the head and that’s what causes the risk factors for heart attack.

In your travels, you speak to audiences about “Enjoying the Journey of Life.” What does that mean to you?
Life is that. Is it not? But most times people don’t get to consider that. We are caught up in the day. Most people in the world are simply trying to make it through the day. In NYC right now, people are trying to figure out how to pay their Con Ed bill! If you’re thinking like that how can you even consider life to be a journey, as opposed to life being burdensome? But life is a gift and it’s filled with wonder just as every human being is a gift and filled with wonder. First you start with the way you see yourself. If you don’t understand yourself, how can you empathize with others?

Final thoughts on P.A.D.?
This is a campaign about health, designed to promote awareness so that people can maintain and improve a good quality of life for themselves.

Marie Wolf is the editor of Wellness magazine.

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