Women’s Heart Health: Differences in Heart Disease in Women Compared to Heart Disease in Men

As I sat around the table at the annual Go Red for Women™” luncheon in Denton, Texas, United States in February, I was struck by this year’s theme “Hearts Around the World.” Throughout my career in pediatric cardiovascular nursing in the last 40 years, I never even considered the fact that heart disease would ever surpass breast cancer (or any other forms of cancer combined) as the number one killer of women in the United States; the statistics from other countries are even more staggering. For example, one in eight women in the United Kingdom die from heart disease annually and almost 500 000 women in the United Kingdom have had a previous myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attack. This editorial will highlight the differences in heart disease in women compared to heart disease in men. Although risk factors for cardiovascular disease are incredibly important, the discussion of them is beyond the scope of this editorial. The importance of heart disease in women has been recently highlighted by two Scientific Statements from the American Heart Association (1,2) , both of which provide a dearth of information about the large body of evidence that has been gathered thus far regarding women’s heart health.