Often incorrectly called "a man's disease," heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States. According to the American Heart Association, heart disease, or cardiovascular disease (CVD), which includes heart attack and stroke, claims 504,000 women in the United States every year- more than the next 16 causes of death combined, including breast cancer.
Heart attacks alone kill almost 250,000 women each year, and women under age 50 who suffer heart attacks are twice as likely as men in the same age group to die from them. Experts believe that one of the major reasons that women are less likely than men to recover from heart attacks is because until recently, treatment and diagnosis of CVD in women was based on what physicians knew about men. As a result, women were diagnosed later than their male counterparts, limiting their treatment options.
Now armed with specific information about women's CVD, health professionals are reaching women at risk with preventive information and treatment. By tailoring their approach to women's needs, they hope to lower women's CVD-related death rates.
Statistics You Can't Ignore
- 71 percent of Lake County women age 40-70 are at risk for a heart attack today.
- Only 27 percent of those women recognize their risk.
- 500,000 women in the United States die annually from heart disease, the number one killer of American women.
- The American Heart Association estimates that 1 in 2 women will die of heart disease or the related condition of stroke, compared to 1 in 29 who will die of breast cancer.
- 9 million women in the U.S. of all ages suffer from heart disease.
- 1 in 10 women 45 to 65 years of age in the U.S. has some form I of heart disease.
- 1 in 4 women 65 or older in the U.S. has some form of heart