Women's Heart Risk Underestimated

New Guidelines stress prevention before aging
By Steve Sternberg
February 20, 2007

Most women carry a higher long-term risk of heart disease than they realize and should act now to prevent heart attacks and stroke, say American Heart Association guidelines issued today.


The guidelines are more far-reaching than those released in 2004. They focus not on a woman's immediate risk but what is likely to happen as she ages.


"Many women can be at low short-term risk, but in the course of a woman's life, she has nearly 1-in-3 chance of dying of heart disease," says Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital. "It's misguided to think you have a low risk of a condition you have a 1-in-3 chance of dying of. Read more...