Facts About Heart Disease and Women

Heart disease is a woman's concern -- every woman's concern. One in ten American women 45 to 64 years of age has some form of heart disease, and this increases to one in four women over 65.

Overall, about 9 million American women of all ages suffer from heart disease. Another 2 million women have had a stroke. Both heart disease and stroke are known as cardiovascular diseases, which include serious disorders of the heart and blood vessel system.

Cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is a condition that greatly increases your chances of developing coronary heart disease, the main form of heart disease. That is because extra cholesterol in the blood collects in the inner walls of the arteries, allowing less blood to get to the heart.

Today, about one-quarter of American women have blood cholesterol levels high enough to pose a serious risk for heart disease. Blood cholesterol among women tends to rise from the age of 20 onward, but goes up sharply beginning at about age 40. It continues to increase until about age 60. More than half of women over age 55 need to lower their blood cholesterol.

Heart Disease Risk Factors

Risk factors are habits or traits that make a person more likely to develop a disease. Many of those for heart disease can be controlled. These include:

• Cigarette smoking
• High blood pressure
• High blood cholesterol (high total cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol)
• Low HDL cholesterol
• Overweight
• Physical inactivity
• Diabetes

The more risk factors you have, the greater your risk. So take action -- take control!

Each year, Medical College of Wisconsin physicians care for more than 180,000 patients, representing nearly 500,000 patient visits. Medical College physicians practice at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, and many other hospitals and clinics in Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin.