Getting to the Heart of the Matter
Take control of your heart’s destiny – know the numbers.
By Lourdes Lorenz, RN, MSN
The latest statistics from the American Heart Association (AHA) on women and heart disease are very frightening for women.
• Did you know that one in 2.6 female deaths are from cardiovascular disease compared with one in 30 from breast cancer?
• Did you know that coronary heart disease is the No. 1 single killer of women over the age of 25?
• Did you know that cardiovascular disease kills over 480,000 women a year, about one per minute? These are the latest statistics from the American Heart Association (AHA) on women and heart disease.
These statistics
become more unfavorable for minority women. The American Heart
Association reported this year that many minority women including
African American, Hispanic, and Native American women, have a greater
number of risk factors or are at a higher risk of death from heart
disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases, but they are less
likely to recognize this risk.
For example, the
2003 the death rate from cardiovascular disease was 38% more for
African American females as compared to white females, according to the
American Heart Association. The goods news is that the awareness of
heart disease as the number one killer of women has increased. The bad
news is that women’s perception continues to be that heart disease “is
not my problem.”
Lack of
knowledge continues to be a problem with women and heart research.
There continues to be a low number of female subjects in cardiovascular
research studies. A frightening fact reported by the American Heart
Association, is that for 1/3 of all new drugs approved by the FDA in
recent years, doctors and researchers don’t have any information about
whether they are safe and effective for women.
The information
gap continues and many women who are at risk for coronary artery
disease are often not referred for appropriate diagnostic testing
perhaps because physicians are more familiar with using imaging studies
to evaluate men. Another staggering statistic comes from the
Circulation Journal which reported in 2004 that less than one in five
physicians recognizes that more women die of heart disease than men
each year.
What can we do
as women to lessen the impact of heart disease in our own lives and in
the lives of our family members and friends? Knowing your numbers is an
important step to take for gathering information and making lifestyle
changes. That’s blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and BMI (body mass
index). Mission Hospitals emphasizes these four numbers as some of the
most basic indicators of health. By knowing your numbers, you can gauge
your risk for serious health problems like cardiovascular disease,
diabetes and stroke. For more information and to calculate you body
mass index on line, visit
www.missionhospitals.org/knowyournumbers/index.htm.
• Blood Pressure Less than 120/80 mm Hg
• Cholesterol Total – below 200 mg/dL
LDL – below 130 mg/dL
HDL – above 50 mg/dL for women
Above 40 mg/dL for men
Triglycerides – below 150 mg/dL
• Glucose Between 70 mg/dL and 100 mg/dL (fasting)
• BMI Between 18.5 kg/m2 and 24.9 kg/m2
Awareness of
risk factors is another essential step in reducing the risk for heart
disease. Keep in mind such risk factors as smoking, physical
inactivity, family history, obesity, Diabetes, and high blood pressure.
New guidelines for recommendations for decreasing risks for heart
disease were released in February, 2007, from the American Heart
Association include:
• Recommended
lifestyle changes to help manage blood pressure include weight control,
increased physical activity, alcohol moderation, salt restriction, and
an emphasis on eating fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products.
• Advising
women to quit smoking, the 2007 guidelines recommend counseling,
nicotine replacement or other forms of smoking cessation therapy.
• Physical
activity recommendation for women who need to lose weight or sustain
weight loss have been added to the recommendations with a minimum of
60-90 minutes of moderate intense activity on most days and preferably
all the days of the week.
• Specific
guidelines on omega-3 fatty acid intake and supplementation recommends
eating fish oil at least twice a week, and to consider taking a capsule
supplement of 850-1000 mg of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA
(docosahexaenoic acid) in women with heart disease, two to four grams
for women with high triglycerides.
• The new guidelines encourage women to decrease saturated fat intake to less than 7% of calories if possible.
• Routine low
dose aspirin therapy may be considered in women age 65 or older
regardless of cardiovascular risk status, if benefits outweigh other
risks.
It is not
important to realize the increasing incidence of heart disease and the
current statistics. It is more important to know that we as women are
at great risk for it becoming “my problem.” Prevention and awareness
are key elements for decreasing our risks for cardiovascular disease.
This knowledge empowers us as women to take control of our heart
destiny.