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What Should Women Know About Heart Disease?

Summary & Participants

Heart disease kills 32 percent of women each year, meaning that more women than men die from heart disease. Tune in to learn the facts about women and heart disease.

Medically Reviewed On: July 02, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States, and eight million women are currently living with this condition.

SUZANNE HUGHES, MSN, RN: People often think that we're hearing more about women and heart disease because women are out in the workplace and leading lives more similar to men. In fact, heart disease has always been a leading cause of death in women

C. NOEL BAIREY MERZ, MD: One in three women will die of heart disease in their lifetime, and one in two women in their lifetime will develop or suffer from what we call cardiovascular disease, which includes heart disease, as well as high blood pressure.

There are five major risk factors that determine the majority of heart disease risk. Number one is cigarette smoking. Number two is high blood pressure. Number three is high blood cholesterol. Number four is diabetes. And number five is a family history of premature coronary heart disease.

ANNOUNCER: Another risk factor for women is age. Nearly 35 percent of women over age 45 have some form of heart disease. And the risk for heart disease increases in postmenopausal women.

SUZANNE HUGHES, MSN, RN: We know that after menopause, women do have a much higher incidence of heart disease. There's been so much controversy around the area of postmenopausal hormone therapy. And, from a heart disease standpoint, the current message is very simple: that postmenopausal hormone therapy should not be considered a tool for heart disease prevention.

ANNOUNCER: With hundreds of thousands of women suffering and dying from heart-related issues each year, what can women do to prevent heart disease?

SUZANNE HUGHES, MSN, RN: The message about prevention in women is so important. We know that women tend to take care of everybody else before they take care of themselves. So women who make sure that their spouse or their significant other gets the important preventive maintenance checkups are the same women that might not follow that same advice in themselves.

C. NOEL BAIREY MERZ, MD: There are five health habits that are associated with an 82 percent risk reduction of heart disease for women in their lifetime. They are: not smoking; doing some type of physical activity 30 minutes per day; eating a heart-healthy, nutritional regimen filled with things like fish, legumes, which are nuts or beans, fruits and vegetables, multiple daily servings, and complex carbohydrates. The fourth health habit is avoid being obese, defined as being 20 percent over your ideal body weight. So we're not talking about 10, 12 pounds. We're talking about 30, 40, 50 pounds overweight. And the final health habit, speak with your own health care provider, is a single serving of alcohol per day. So these are simple things, hard to do every day, but things that you can do in your own life that dramatically can reduce your risk of heart disease as a woman.