Know your risk factors
Many things may increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. The more risk factors you have, the greater your chances of suffering a heart attack or a stroke. Women have the same risk factors as men, and for some factors their risk is higher than men’s.
You can modify, treat or control some major risk factors in order to lower your risk of heart disease or stroke.
Tobacco use: Women smokers have a higher risk of heart attack than male smokers.1 Women who smoke only 2-5 cigarettes double their risk of heart attack, while men who smoke 6-9 cigarettes a day double their risk. Constant exposure to secondhand smoke increases your risk. Women smokers who use birth control pills have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke than nonsmokers who use them. 2
Obesity and overweight: If you have too much fat especially in your waist area you are at higher risk for heart disease and stroke. The Body Mass Index measures your weight in relation to your height and is a common measurement to determine if you are overweight. Another measure is waist circumference.
If you are an obese smoker you can expect to live 14 fewer years than non smokers of normal weight.
Physical inactivity increases your risk of coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke 1.5 times. Walking reduces heart disease in women. Among inactive women, heart disease occurs almost twice as likely as in those who are more active. 3
Unhealthy eating: What you eat affects your heart health. Not enough fresh fruit and vegetables and too much sugar, salt and fat in your diet increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.
High Blood Pressure is largely preventable.
Blood pressure increases with age, affecting two-thirds of women over 75.
Women have an increased risk of developing high blood pressure if they are obese, pregnant, have a family history of high blood pressure, take birth control pills or have reached menopause.
High Blood Cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease and also increases the risk of stroke. Women’s cholesterol is higher than men’s from age 45 on. High levels of LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) raise the risk of heart disease and heart attack and high levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) lower the risk of heart disease. 4
Diabetes affects more than 70 million women in the world. Women with diabetes have from 2.6 times the risk of heart disease and heart attack 5 and are at much greater risk of having stroke. 6
1 Prescott et al. BMJ 1998;316:1043-1047.
2 Johansson S, Vedin A, Wilhelmsson C. Epidemiol Rev 1983;5:67-95
3 www.americanheart.org/womenheartdiseaseandstroke
4 www.americanheart.org/womenheartdiseaseandstroke
5 IDF Position statement. Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease.July 2003. www.idf.org/careand education/position statement/diabetesandcvd
6 Mi Khail GW. BMJ, 2005 ;331 :467-468
Some risk factors you can't control:
Increasing age: As you are getting older, your risk of heart disease and stroke begins to rise and continues increasing with age
Family history: If your close blood relatives have had heart disease or stroke you are more likely to develop them.
Previous heart attack or stroke: If you have had a heart attack, you are at higher risk of having a second heart attack. Same with a stroke.
Ethnicity: Some populations are more at risk than others. Some Hispanic Americans, Chinese, Japanese and African Americans are at high risk of cardiovascular disease.
