August 2003

Healthy Heart Handbook for Women
The Path to a Healthy Heart
By Jan Ehrman

What factors increase a woman's risk of heart disease? What tests do women need to find out if they have heart disease? How can women better talk with their doctor about heart disease? What do they need to know about postmenopausal hormone therapy? What's a heart-healthy eating plan?

If you answered "yes" to any of these boxes, you're at an increased risk of having a heart attack. Talk to your doctor about what you can do to lower your risk.

The answers to these and many other questions can be found in the newly updated edition of The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women. Published by NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, the popular handbook has 100-plus pages packed with the latest information about heart disease and its risk factors, as well as "action steps" women can take to protect their heart. It tells how to eat for heart health, aim for a healthy weight, learn to become physically active, kick the smoking habit, and even prepare for a heart attack. Further, it includes personal stories from women who have had a heart attack or changed their lives to lower their risk of heart disease.

As the handbook notes, most American women aren't aware of the health threat posed by heart disease. It's the #1 killer of American women — 1 in 2 women in the United States will die of heart disease or stroke. By comparison, 1 in 30 American women will die of breast cancer.

The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women offers women an easy-to-use, one-stop source for the latest information about how to lower their risk of heart disease. Often, all it takes are some lifestyle changes. So don't wait to check out the handbook and begin taking steps to keep your heart strong.

— a report from The NIH Word on Health, August 2003

To obtain The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women, visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/other/hhw/index.htm. Contact the NHLBI Health Information Center for this and other information on heart disease and its risk factors at:

P.O. Box 30105
Bethesda, MD 20824-0105
Phone 301-592-8573
TTY 240-629-3255
fax 301-592-8563
www.nhlbi.nih.gov