Women &
Heart Disease
To determine your knowledge of the risks of heart disease to women, answer these two simple questions.
1. As a woman, breast cancer is the greatest threat to your health. True or false.2. Men are more likely to die from their first heart attack. True or false.
Answers:
1. False. Heart disease and stroke are by far the biggest causes of illness and death in American women, killing 500,000 each year. By contrast, breast cancer takes the lives of about 44,000 American women a year, lung cancer causes 66,000 women to die each year, and AIDS kills 7,300 women per year.
2. False. A woman is more likely to die from a first heart attack than a man.
Hormone replacement therapy
Recent medical studies suggest that estrogen, a hormone produced by the ovaries, lowers a woman's the risk of heart disease. Age may not be the determining factor -- young women who have had their ovaries removed have the same risk of developing heart disease as post-menopausal women.
If you are over 50, or have had your ovaries removed, your doctor may suggest hormone replacement therapy to reduce your risk of heart disease or stroke. But remember, no medication can replace reducing your other risk factors. Eat a diet high in fiber and low in fatty foods and cholesterol, move your body for 30 minutes a day four to seven times a week, and above all, quit smoking.
Smoking
Smoking increases your risk of heart disease. The more you smoke, the higher your risk for related illnesses, too, such as stroke, cancer and high blood pressure. In addition, women taking oral contraceptives are at a much higher risk for heart disease if they smoke.
Even if you don't smoke, you're not out of the woods if you live with a smoker. A study conducted by the American Heart Association found that people who have never smoked but were married to a smoker had a 20% higher risk of dying of heart disease than those married to a nonsmoker.
Taking it seriously
The medical community has come to realize that heart disease is a concern for everyone and that women are not immune to this killer. Now, it's time for women to stop thinking of heart disease as a "man's disease." That means you should stop smoking or never start, eat a heart-healthy diet, get regular aerobic exercise, reduce the stress in your life and get you blood pressure and cholesterol checked. And if your doctor prescribes blood pressure or cholesterol-lowering medication, take it!
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