PREVENTING WOMEN’S HEART ATTACKS:
U-M’S LORI MOSCA CHAIRS PANEL WITH NEW RECOMMENDATIONS
 Heart
disease kills more American women each year than all cancers
combined.
New guidelines from the American Heart Association and the
American College of Cardiology were released April 30, 1999
in hopes of reversing what a University of Michigan physician
calls this “alarming trend” in women’s risk for
heart disease.
Lori Mosca, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of internal medicine
and preventative cardiologist, chaired the expert panel for
the new guidelines, which she says were created to help women
and their physicians reduce the risk of car- diovascular disease
and heart attacks. “Heart disease prevention is particularly
important for women because 30 to 40 percent of women will die
from their first heart attack. There’s often no opportunity
for a second chance,” Mosca says. “That’s why
prevention is the key.”
The most important recommendations: Women and their doctors
must be aware of heart attack risk factors that are critical
to women. Women should avoid or quit smoking, exercise for 30
minutes every day, reduce fat and salt in their diet, and eat
plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Women also should tackle stress, loneliness and depression
with exercise and socializing rather than food or cigarettes.
“Heart disease in women is largely preventable, but there
are several alarming trends in risk factors for heart disease,”
Mosca says. “Only 25 percent of American women get regular
sustained physical activity. The rate of smoking decline is
less for women than it is for men. Nearly half of all women
over the age of 45 have high blood pressure. Forty percent have
high cholesterol.
“There is substantial evidence that women are being undertreated
in terms of their blood pressure and cholesterol, which are
major risk factors for heart attack in women,” Mosca says.
“There’s excellent evidence now showing that if women
can achieve these lower levels, we can reduce their risk of
a future heart attack, or a recurrent heart attack if they already
have heart disease.” Cholesterol- lowering drugs may be
more beneficial to women than men in reducing the risk of heart
attacks, according to the new guidelines.
For further information on clinical or research programs for
heart disease prevention at the U-M Health System, please call
734-998-7400.
You may reach Lori Mosca at:
mosca@umich.edu
 
|
