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Medical News
Go Red For Women celebrates the energy, passion and power we have to band
together to wipe out heart disease and stroke.
Thanks to the participation of millions of people across the country, the
color red and the red dress now stand for the ability all women have to
improve their heart health and live stronger, longer lives.
What Are the Risk Factors for Heart Disease?
Risk factors are conditions or habits that make a person more likely to
develop a disease. They can also increase the chances that an existing
disease will get worse. Important risk factors for heart disease that you can
do something about are:
High blood pressure
High blood cholesterol
Diabetes
Smoking
Being overweight
Being physically inactive
Having a family history of early heart disease
Age (55 or older for women)
Some risk factors, such as age and family history of early heart disease,
can't be changed. For women, age becomes a risk factor at 55. After
menopause, women are more apt to get heart disease, in part because their
body's production of estrogen drops. Women who have gone through early
menopause, either naturally or because they have had a hysterectomy, are
twice as likely to develop heart disease as women of the same age who have not
yet gone through menopause.
Family history of early heart disease is another risk factor that can't be
changed. If your father or brother had a heart attack before age 55, or if
your mother or sister had one before age 65, you are more likely to get heart
disease yourself.
While certain risk factors cannot be changed, it is important to realize
that you do have control over many others. Regardless of your age,
background, or health status, you can lower your risk of heart disease-and it
doesn't have to be complicated. Protecting your heart can be as simple as
taking a brisk walk, whipping up a good vegetable soup, or getting the
support you need to maintain a healthy weight.
Some women believe that doing just one healthy thing will take care of all
of their heart disease risk. For example, they may think that if they walk or
swim regularly, they can still smoke and stay fairly healthy. Wrong! To
protect your heart, it is vital to make changes that address each risk factor
you have. You can make the changes gradually, one at a time. But making them
is very important.
Other women may wonder: If I have just one risk factor for heart
disease-say, I'm overweight or I have high blood cholesterol-aren't I more or
less "safe"? Absolutely not. Each risk factor greatly increases a
woman's chance of developing heart disease. But having more than one risk
factor is especially serious, because risk factors tend to "gang
up" and worsen each other's effects.
So, the message is clear: Every woman needs to take her heart disease risk
seriously-and take action now to reduce that risk.
http://www.goredforwomen.org/
http://www.americanheart.org/
Health Links
For more health information, check out these links:
Asheville Citizen Times Health
listings: Local health news and calendar.
Mountain Express Health calendar: up to date
local listing of health events in many categories.
WebMD.com A web service with health advice
on hundreds of topics.
Dr. Curran and the staff at Pisgah Family Health are proud
to publish the Pisgah Family Health News to our patients. Our goal is
to provide regularly updated information about the office and current medical
topics. We plan to publish a new issue each quarter with breaking
news. The newsletters will also be archived on our website, http://www.pisgahfamilyhealth.com/.
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