Women & heart disease
DID YOU KNOW?
- Heart disease kills more men and women each year than any other illness.
- 250,000 women a year die from heart disease
- 39 % of women who have heart attacks die within a year, compared to 31% of men
- At older ages, women who have heart attacks are twice as likely as men to die from them within a few weeks
RISK FACTORS FOR HEART DISEASE IN WOMEN
If you smoke, have high blood pressure or high blood cholesterol, are overweight or diabetic, get little or not exercise, take oral contraceptives and smoke, are post-menopausal, or have a mother and father who had a heart attack before age 60, you are at risk for heart disease.
The good news? With certain lifestyle changes, you can reduce these risks:
- Quit smoking
- Follow a low-fat, low cholesterol diet (30 % or less of total calories come from fat)
- Walk 30-60 minutes a day, at least three days a week
- Take high blood pressure medication as ordered by your doctor
- Maintain your ideal body weight
- Use another form of contraception if you smoke and use the pill
- Keep your diabetes under control
TAKE OUR HEART DISEASE RISK ASSESSMENT
Our on-line assessment takes just five minutes to complete, but it could save your life. When you're done, you'll get an explanation of your risk factors and recommended steps to help reduce them. Learn more and take the assessment.
MORE ON WOMEN AND HEART DISEASE
Find information about all of the cardiac services offered at Baptist Regional Medical Center, and more helpful resources and interactive tools anytime on this site:
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