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Heart disease: what can you do?

Article Excerpt
What else can women do to prevent heart disease? The Network gets this question often in the aftermath of the Women's Health Initiative, which found conclusively that hormone replacement therapy is not effective in reducing a woman's risk of developing heart disease. We've written this article to share what is currently known about heart disease, and to encourage women to take sensible steps to reduce their own risk of developing the disease.

Number-One Killer: But When?

We're often told that heart disease is the number-one killer of American women, and that's correct. But it's important to take a more detailed look at who suffers from heart disease, and at what age. Heart disease doesn't become the leading killer of American women until age 75. (1) From then on, it's the most likely cause of death for women of all backgrounds. But there are interesting differences in who suffers from heart disease at an earlier--and presumably preventable--age. Heart disease becomes the number-one killer of African-American women a full 10 years before all other women in the U.S. The rate at which African-American women die of heart disease during those years is more than double that in Asian, Latina, Hispanic and white women. (1)

Does Menopause Cause Heart Disease?

In one word: no. Menopause seems to be associated with increasing cholesterol levels in some women, but so...