' Cosby' Star Tackles a Silent Heart Threat

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This is Rashad's second time out stumping on behalf of a health concern. In 2002, she helped launch a diabetes awareness campaign, sponsored by drug maker GlaxoSmithKline.

This time 'round, Rashad offered up recollections of her own family's experience battling cardiovascular disease.

"My father, who had diabetes, died of a heart attack," she recalls. "And his father, who had diabetes, died of a heart attack. My father's brother, who had diabetes, and one of his sisters died of heart attacks. Two of his sisters died of a stroke."

Of eight family members who had diabetes and went on to die of heart disease, none was ever tested for PAD, Rashad said.

"And had there been awareness, and had this test been performed, and if they had this condition -- which is likely -- then there was maybe something that could have happened to avert those circumstances," she said.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), risk for this specific form of peripheral vascular disease rises with age, with somewhere between 12 percent and 20 percent of men and women developing the condition by the age of 65.

People who smoke, diabetics, those with high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol, and those with a family history of cardiovascular disease are at an increased risk for developing PAD.

Patients who do experience symptoms often complain of cramping, pain, and fatigue in the leg or hip muscles when walking or climbing. Such symptoms often temporarily dissipate with rest.

The AHA points out that if left untreated the condition can sometimes lead to gangrene and even amputation.

However, patients can be effectively screened for PAD by having their "ankle-brachial index" calculated by their doctor. The reading is based on blood pressure results taken from the ankles and arms.

"It isn't painful, it isn't costly, and it's simple," Rashad said. She said people at risk for PAD should be tested at least once yearly, a routine she herself follows.

"I don't have PAD," she said. "I have not had to deal with it personally -- I mean other than the consequences of my family members' deaths."