Prevention: the key to reducing cardiovascular disease risk in women

More than 500,000 US women die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) annually, exceeding deaths for cancer, accidents, and diabetes combined. Yet women are largely unaware of this and fear breast cancer more. One way of changing this number is to change the way we approach CVD, that is, to practice preventive healthcare. Until recently, guidelines for women with CVD were derived largely from research conducted primarily on white middle-aged men. Although evidence-based medicine is still lacking, guidelines and recommendations specifically for women are now available and include aggressive management of the risk factors of smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and obesity. Unless women are educated regarding these risk factors and are enabled to make lifestyle changes, their chances of modifying and reducing their risks are severely impaired.