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- How often does the average heart beat (expand and contract) each day? About 100,000 times. How much blood does it pump? About 2,000 gallons. If you live to age 70, your heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times.
- Although some risk factors for a heart attack are beyond our control, many more are not. To prevent a heart attack, live in a "heart-healthy" way. That means:
- get more physical exercise
- eat a heart-healthy diet
- keep your blood pressure under control
- keep your cholesterol under control
- stop smoking
- stop drinking alcohol heavily
- Fewer than half of all women are aware that heart disease is the number 1 killer of American women. Most women identify cancer as the leading cause of death.
- One in ten American women 45 to 64 years of age has some form of heart disease, and this increases to one in four women over 65. It kills ten times more women than breast cancer each year, and more than all other cancers combined.
- According to one study, nearly one fourth of women who died of heart disease were between the ages of 35 and 44.
- Heart disease is a different disease for women than it is for men.
- Smoking is the most prevalent and preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease in women younger than 45.
- African-American women are more at risk for heart disease than Caucasian women.
*Quick Facts have been reviewed by Medical Advisors and are current as of October 2005.
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