Heart Disease and Women

From CNN:

U.S. women still do not fully understand their high risk of heart disease and are confused by reports that suggest being overweight and inactive are not really that dangerous, the American Heart Association said.

Statistics released on Tuesday show 483,800 American women died from heart disease and stroke in 2003, the latest year for which detailed statistics are available.

Six million women had coronary heart disease and 3.1 million had strokes, the association said in a special issue of its journal Circulation.

"That's more lives than were claimed by the next five leading causes of death combined: cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes and accidents," the Heart Association said.

But only 55 percent of 1,008 women surveyed knew that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of U.S. women over the age of 25 -- although that is up from 30 percent in 1997.