Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, yet surprisingly, only 54 percent of women are aware of this, according to the Heart disease has traditionally been thought of as a man's disease, with most studies and research done on men's hearts," says Suzanne Steinbaum, M.D., cardiologist and director of women's heart health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. "In reality, heart disease kills one in three women each year." when really, more women die from heart disease and stroke than from all cancers combined, says Richard Snyder, M.D., board-certified family practice physician and chief medical officer at Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia. Since 1984, more women than men have died each year from heart disease, according to the (AHA), and the gap between men's and women's survival continues to widen. "Among women over the age of 20, the numbers are staggering," says Steinbaum. One-third of white and Hispanic women—and half of African-American women—have cardiovascular disease.
Underlying heart conditions,pills, smoking, a poor diet, and a lack of exercise can all contribute to heart disease striking at a young age. (And combining birth control pills with smoking can increase your risk by 20 percent, according to the In fact, a small study published by the Heart and Stroke Foundation in Canada found that almost half (48 percent) of participants—who were young with no known heart disease risk factors—already had signs of blood vessel thickening (known as atherosclerosis), which is often one of the first signs of cardiovascular disease. However, the study also discovered an easy way to determine if you're likely to have thickening blood vessels: measure your waist and hips. Participants with early signs of heart disease tended to have hip measurements that were smaller than, or almost the same as, their waist. But whether you do or no In dudes, the classic heart attack symptom is left-sided chest pain or pressure, sometimes radiating down the arm or into the jaw, says Snyder. Women, on the other hand, tend to have symptoms that are super subtle, such as fatigue, shortness of breath, indigestion, back pain, even jaw pain. "If you're experiencing any of these symptoms
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