There are many things that women can do to reduce their risk of developing coronary heart disease:
- Stop smoking
- Maintain a weight as close to their ideal body weight as possible,
- Exercise (the American Heart Association recommends 20 minutes of exercise 3 times a week with warm up and cool down periods),
- Seek screening and treatment for high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol.
A regimen of one aspirin (325 mg) every other day has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks and death from heart disease in men. However, but since no women were included in research studies of aspirin for heart disease so it's not known if women could also benefit.
Upon reaching menopause, a woman's risk for heart disease equals if not surpasses a man's risk. Cholesterol levels that were kept in check by estrogen production may surge upward. Hormone replacement therapy may reduce the sudden increased risk, but may at the same time promote an increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
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