February 05th, 2019

​​​One in five women in the United States die from heart disease. But there’s a lot you can do to protect your heart.

One inThe most common type of heart disease is coronary heart disease, also called clogged arteries. It causes heart attacks and is the #1 killer of women in the United States. Healthy eating and physical activity go a long way to preventing heart disease, and keeping it from getting worse if you already have it. Read on to learn more about heart disease, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, how to find out if you’re at risk, how to protect your heart, and more.
What Are Your Risk Factors for Heart Disease?Risk factors are conditions or habits that make a person more likely to develop a disease. They can also increase the chances that an existing disease will get worse. Important risk factors for heart disease are:

• Having high blood pressure
• Having high blood cholesterol
• Unhealthy lifestyle
• Being overweight or obese
• Diabetes and prediabetes
• Smoking
• Being physically inactive
• Having a family history of early heart disease
• Having a history of preeclampsia during pregnancy
• Unhealthy diet
• Age (55 or older for women)

Some risk factors, such as age and family history of early heart disease, can't be changed.
For women, age becomes a risk factor at 55. After menopause, women are more apt to get heart disease, in part because their body’s production of estrogen drops. Women who have gone through early menopause, either naturally or because they have had a hysterectomy, are twice as likely to develop heart disease as women of the same age who have not yet gone through menopause. Another reason for the increasing risk is that middle age is a time when women tend to develop risk factors for heart disease.
Family history of early heart disease is another risk factor that can’t be changed. If your father or brother had a heart attack before age 55, or if your mother or sister had one before age 65, you are more likely to get heart disease yourself. Preeclampsia is another heart disease risk factor that you can't control. However, if you’ve had the condition, you should take extra care to try to control other heart disease risk factors.
Being more physically active and eating a healthy diet are important steps for your heart health. You can make the changes gradually, one at a time. But making them is very important.
You may wonder: If I have just one risk factor for heart disease—say, I'm overweight or I have high blood cholesterol—aren’t I more or less "safe"? Absolutely not. Each risk factor greatly increases a woman’s chance of developing heart disease. But having more than one risk factor is especially serious, because risk factors tend to "gang up" and worsen each other’s effects. So, the message is clear: Every woman needs to take her heart disease risk seriously—and take action now to reduce that risk.
Additional ResourcesHow do I Find Out if I am at Risk for Heart Disease?
Coronary Heart Disease
Heart Attack


Post from the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute : www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/education-and-awareness/heart-truth/listen-to-your-heart

five women in the United States die from heart disease. But there’s a lot you can do to protect your heart.