2004-2-17
This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health
Report.
Studies show that many American women believe breast cancer is
the biggest threat to their health. But more than ten times as many
women die of cardiovascular diseases. These are diseases of the
heart and blood vessels. Heart attacks and strokes are the leading
killer of both men and women.
Breast cancer kills about forty-thousand women in the United
States each year. But heart attacks and strokes kill about
five-hundred-thousand. In fact, fifteen percent more women than men
die of cardiovascular disease. Yet many people still think of it
mainly affecting men.
The American Heart Association has
new guidelines to help prevent heart attacks and strokes in women.
It published the guidelines in Circulation: the Journal of the
American Heart Association.
For example, the guidelines urge women not to use hormone
replacement therapy as a way to protect the heart. Hormone
replacement is for women past the time when they can have children.
But recent studies have shown that it may do more harm than good.
The guidelines also urge women to know their risk of heart attack
or heart disease. They suggest that a woman talk to her doctor about
this beginning as young as the age of twenty.
The heart association Web site has information that can help
people measure their level of risk. The address is
americanheart-dot-o-r-g.
Users answer some questions. They enter their age and whether or
not they smoke. They need to know the level of cholesterol in their
blood. And they need to know their blood pressure.
A total score below ten percent is considered low risk. This
means that a woman has less than a ten percent chance of a heart
attack in the next ten years. The next level of ten to twenty
percent is considered intermediate risk. More than twenty percent is
high risk.
The heart association says those at high risk should ask their
doctor for medicine that lowers cholesterol. Women are also urged to
ask for treatment if their blood pressure is one-hundred-forty over
ninety or higher.
The guidelines say women at intermediate or high risk should
consider taking an aspirin each day. Aspirin may reduce the risk of
a heart attack.
Again, the Web site is americanheart.org. Americanheart is all
one word.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn
Watson. This is Phoebe Zimmermann.