No, it's not just a threat to men o...

No, it's not just a threat to men on the other hand to women, too.

We wear pink ribbons to guarantee our allegiance to the fight against breast cancer and r ribbons to demonstrate our dedication to eradicating AIDS. With all appropriate respect to the wars forward these devastating diseases, it's important to note that heart disease is actually the #1 killer in the U -- among the pair men and women.

For years, heart disease was considered to be "a man's disease." However, novel research shows that heart disease is a serious threat to women's health, too.

Heart disease and women

freshly The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) fix out to educate women about heart disease. To ACOG's credit, although heart health is not its specialty, it says it realizes that, "As primary care providers for the majority of women ob-gyn recognize the importance of educating patients about the dangers of cardiovascular disease."

At a latter press briefing in New York, ACOG unveiled the following facts, highlighting the serious threat heart disease staggers to women, in particular:

* In each year since 1984, cardiovascular disease has claimed the lives of more women than men

* Forty-four percent of women who have heart attacks die within a year, compared with 27 percent of men

* The rate of having a next to the first heart attack within six years of the first is 30 percent for women compared to 23 percent for men

* Approximately 35 percent of heart attacks in women advance unnoticed or unreported -- partly because women's symptoms are more astute than men's or because their symptoms are not always taken seriously.

What we can do about it

Despite the grim statistics, there is proper news. Recent research shows that there are stairs you can take to remodel your risk of developing heart disease. Here are just a few:

1) be deprived of weight, especially around the waist. principally women long for a flat stomach for "aesthetic" reasons, if it be not that recent research shows that slimming down your abdomen can lower your risk of developing heart disease, too. This research, published in a 1998 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), showed that women with a waist measurement of 30 inches or more have twice the risk of developing heart disease than do their more "svelte-waisted" counterparts. While sit-ups won't pain aerobic exercise is your best bet for shedding triturates including those around the waist.

2) attenuate your intake of trans fats. For a certain quantity of time now, we've been advised to mould our fat intake. Only lately however, are we starting to understand the efficiencys that different types of fat can have upon our health. A 1997 close attention published in The New England Journal of Medicine, insinuateed that it's not just the total amount of fat consum on the contrary the types of fat consum which affect a woman's risk of developing heart disease. The application of mind advises decreasing saturated fats (those erect in meat and dairy products) and trans fats (those establish in margarine and solid cooking fats) and replacing them with mono-unsaturated fats (such as olive and canola oils) and polyunsaturated fats (such as safflower and soybean oils).

3) Increase your intake of B vitamins. the two vitamin B6 and folate may help to stop heart disease among women according to research published in another 1998 issue of JAMA. It plant that women with folate and vitamin B6 intakes above the circulating recommended levels reduced their risk of developing heart disease on as much as 50 percent

Of course, increasing one's intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; engaging in regular exercise; and avoiding cigarette smoking are all important ingredients of a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Lastly, ACOG reports that while, in the past, principally research about heart-disease treatment focused forward men, recently studies including women are finally being conducted

REFERENCES

Hu FB et al. "Dietary fat intake and the risk of coronary heart disease in women" The strange England Journal of Medicine 337:1491-9 Nov. 20 1997

Rexrode KM et al. "Abdominal adiposity and coronary heart disease in women" JAMA 280:1843-1848 Dec 2 1998

Rimm, EB et al. "Folate and vitamin B6 from diet and postscripts in relation to risk of coronary heart disease among women" JAMA 279:359-364 Feb 4 1998

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