Everyday, thousands of people are put on prescription medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol or atherosclerosis because heart disease is the leading cause of death in Americans over the age of 45.  The process seems to begin with an injury in an artery’s lining caused by high blood pressure, smoking or an amino acid called homocystein which is generated by the breakdown of protein in the body.  Cholesterol and other fats get trapped at the damaged site and become oxidized or turn ‘rusty’ and attract an assortment of cells that turn to plaque. The problem with plaque is that it makes blood flow very difficult so it is important to feed your body with foods that can help prevent this oxidation process.  Here are some foods to consider adding to your daily regimen:

.1.  Avocados – contain good fats and potassium that help lower cholesterol and blood pressure and help prevent cancer.  You want to eat about 1/3 of an avocado per day or make some guacemole for a heart healthy snack.

2.  Lentils – are loaded with all sorts of nutrients that protect the heart including folate and fiber.  There are 9 grams of protein in 1/2 cup so they make a great substitute for meat.

3.  Onions – contain sulfur compounds, also found in garlic, that thin your blood and lower blood pressure naturally.  The most quercetin is found in red onions, followed by yellow and white onions, and help prevent oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol.

4.  Sardines – contain Omega 3’s which decrease blood clotting, prevent heart arrhythmias and fight inflammation throughout the body.

5.  Pumpkin Seeds – are high in Omega 3’s too and help clean up arteries and capillaries.  Sprinkle them on salads or grind them up in a food processor and add to whole grain flour to coat chicken or fish for a delicious main course.

Heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States.  Many times heart disease is preventable with life style changes that you can do.  Here are five changes that you should take to prevent heart disease.

1. Stop smoking and all use of tobacco products.  Even occasional smoking, low tar and low nicotine cigarettes and smokeless tobacco put you at risk.  Even worse news is that even second hand smoke is risky to your health.  Cigarette smoke and nicotine make put stress on the heart and make it work harder.  Women who take birth control pills and smoke increase their risk of heart attack and stroke.  The risk is even greater after women turn 35.  Within only a year after quitting smoking, the risk of heart disease drops quickly.

2. Start exercising.  Moderate exercise can reduce your risk of a heart attack.  It also helps you to maintain a healthy weight and can help reduce chances of high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.  You should get ½ to 1 hour of exercise most days of the week.  The time can be broken up into shorter segments as long as you reach the total time during the day.

3. Eat better food.  The American Heart Association has published the DASH eating plan that is available online.  The plan encourages you to eat low cholesterol, low fat and low salt.  It is also important to include Omega 3 fatty acids in your diet to lower cholesterol.  Almost all of us should include more fruit and vegetables in our diet.  Also remember that if you drink alcohol, it should be in moderation.

4. Keep your weight under control.  Excess weight leads to greater chances of developing other conditions that lead to heart disease.  One indicator of a healthy weight is a BMI of less that 25.  A ten percent reduction in weight can lower your blood pressure.

5. Visit the Doctor regularly.  Unless you are checked your will probably not know that you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure.  Regularly having these checked also allows you and your doctor to know if the trends are increasing or remaining about the same.  If your blood pressure is normal, it should still be tested every two years.  Cholesterol should be tested at least every five years.  If the numbers are high, then have them checked more regularly.

Heart disease prevention is a numbers game.  If you take steps to reduce the risk factors, you reduce the risk of developing heart disease.  Remember that heart disease is not only the number one cause of death among both men and women, but also is the number one cause of disability for both sexes.  If heart disease disables you, it reduces your earning potential and may cause economic hardship for your family.  If heart disease kills you, it not only causes economic hardship but also causes emotional pain for the family left behind.  Take steps to prevent heart disease you are worth it and your family will appreciate it.

Heart is the most significant organ of the body. It controls and regulates the entire body. An individual can survive the loss of other organs of body but not of a heart. The moment heart ceases pumping blood to the body, it results in a heart stroke and there are chances that the person may die.

But people are often negligent in taking care of this undeniably crucial organ of their body. This is made evident by the studies that reveal the escalating deaths due to cardiac arrests every year. It is not just the elderly who are gripped by cardiac seizures due to their age, which implicates a declining health but also young children, and even infants who are inflicted by heart ailments.

1. Heart diseases- human heart starts malfunctioning due to many reasons. In other words there are different diseases that affect human heart.

• Congenital Heart Disease is a very common one. It leads to malformation of heart during prenatal development and other severe complications. Chromosomal abnormalities, transfer of infected genes and environment are the main attributed causes to congenital heart disease.

• Coronary Artery Disease is one where heart simply stops pumping blood to the arteries. The blockages or difficulty in the blood flow to the main source of oxygen to the heart muscle i.e. coronary arteries is deemed to be the primary factor that results in this disease. Apart from this the thickening of the arteries called arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure and other problems like asthma, diabetes etc. are the causes of CAD. CAD produces a heart attack and so even the death of the concerned individual.

• A viral infection that attacks the pericardium pouch enveloping the heart is the ground for the Pericardial heart disorder.

2. The Roots of Heart Ailment- in most of the cases the individuals themselves are responsible for their cardiac troubles.

• Over stress is the biggest threat to a healthy life so much so that it affects even one’s heart.

• Faulty food habits i.e. eating more of junk and fattening food rich in cholesterol is the primary reason for a heart attack.

• Obesity and lack of physical labor also accentuates cardiac problems.

• Heart problems are also hereditary.

• Blood pressure patients are more prone to heart attacks.

• Alcoholics, smokers and drug addicts have acute possibilities of heart failure.

3. Some Common Cures- it is not likely to prevent every heart problem especially those malformations or diseases that are innate or since the time of birth. They can at best be treated with the aid of surgeries.

• Watch your eating and drinking habits. Avoid cholesterol abounding food like butter, cheese, creams, cakes and pastries etc.

• Pregnant women are advised to keep away from hard drinks, cigarettes and narcotics. Negligence in this regard can be a source of incurable congenital heart disease to the baby.

• If you are a sedentary worker, make it a point to exercise daily in order to maintain a healthy living.

• Endeavor your best to have a nutritious and balanced diet.

• If you suffer from diabetes, blood pressure, asthma or any such disease, go for regular medical check ups to know about the functioning of the internal organs of your body.

• Last but not the least, avoid doing things that petrify you and do not favor your health. For instance if altitude or great height scares you, it is not a prudent choice to go for mountain climbing.

Mainly gender and age are the influences of heart disease and stroke. There are a variety of heart diseases that can affect your heart mainly when you get old. Amongst the very common ones is the heart attack. Stroke occurs when brain dysfunctions slowly, due to lack of blood supply to it.

Be Precocious In Your Actions

Every action that you do today may cause an adverse effect or a good one to your heart. You have to be precocious to keep your actions in such a way that it prevents heart disease and stroke in the future. In a recent survey, Men are more attacked by heart disease than women are, as the latter just pour out their hard feeling by crying or sharing with others that men don’t do. A man keeps all his worries inside his heart and does not let it flow through tears. So, he is more prone to heart attack or stroke.

Common Cause For Heart Disease

The main reason for heart disease is the increase in cholesterol level. When the cholesterol level increases, it may cause a block in blood flow which eventually results in heart attack. It is advised to avoid rich fat foods like butter, but the actual culprit in creating heart attack is food, which is rich in sugar. People, who have excessive weight, are more prone to heart attack. So, a person should mainly take care of the diet to prevent heart attack and stroke.

Proper Diet Avoids Heart Disease & Stroke

Diet is one thing, which a person has to maintain, in order to prevent heart disease and stroke. To prevent heart disease from getting worsening, you need to follow a strict and healthy diet. First of all, realise the major risk factors of heart disease. Fluctuation in blood pressure level, cholesterol level, diabetes, smoking and alcohol consumption may cause heart problems.

Role of Fruits, Fresh Vegetables and Fish

Like the proverb “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, there are certain things that you have to follow in order to prevent certain diseases. Most important thing is avoid too much of sugar, red meat, fat and too much of salt. Try taking loads of fruits and fresh vegetables. This is the most preferred diet. One more thing, which prevents heart attack, is fish. Adding too much of ordinary oil while cooking can harm your health. So, try cooking with Olive Oil, which has got no harm.

Have Proper Intake of Fiber and Water Intake

We should have a good digestive system to get rid of these diseases. The only possible way is to have proper diet on fiber and water intake. Eight glasses of water is prescribed for a person to be healthy. Natural foods, which are rich in folic acid like spinach, orange juice and leafy vegetables are prescribed by most doctors. Again, you can also opt for natural foods, which are rich in Magnesium like beets, dates and soya beans. To avoid stroke, you can have grains, rye, cooking herbs, turmeric, ginger, shallots, sweet potatoes and tofu.

Never be addicted to tobacco and alcohol, which may surely lead to heart attack and stroke. Control your diet by taking limited amount of salt, sugar and foods with high fat. With such a routine, you’ll notice the difference in a very short period.

If you want to avoid hypertension and having heart disease then you need to lower your blood pressure so that you can maintain a healthy lifestyle. There are some natural things that you can do that will keep your blood pressure low and you do not even have to take drugs. You want to keep your arteries form getting clogged so eating right and exercising is one of the most important things you need to do. If you take drugs then you know that there can be some unwanted side affects and reducing your need for them can be a great benefit to you.

You want to consider using natural supplements that can lower your blood pressure and the two that work well are garlic and omega 3 fish oil. There has been a lot of studies that show that using these two items can reduce the amount of medicine you will need to take and there are cost effective.

Next you need to change your diet and the way you are eating sodium. If you lower your sodium intake it will have a drastic affect on your blood sugar levels. Also you want to eat lots of natural fruits and vegetables and make sure that you eat low fat fish and chicken as well.

Remember that if you want to keep your heart healthy then you need to make some lifestyle changes and eating right and getting plenty of exercise as well can make a big difference. You want to make changes that you can live with so you do not feel stressed about doing every change at once. You can make the changes to improve your health and you will live a long and productive life.

The human heart is without doubt an extraordinary organ, in an adult it weighs in at around 200 – 425 grams, is about the size of a fist and beats around 100,000 a day with the precision of a Swiss watch. With every beat, it alone separates us all from life and death. Having said this it is so easy for us to become complacent in respect to it’s (and our overall) health and neglect it in many ways.

In order to keep it in top working condition it only takes a few careful lifestyle choices to insure it stays that way. 

Keeping out of the fat zone

Diet as we all know plays such an important part in our lives, and changing it for the better does not necessarily mean dull and boring foodstuffs. We have been seduced over the years into the fast convenient food arena which is slowly killing us all. I am not saying that one must abstain from such rather be more selective and balance it more wisely. Don’t believe all you hear with regard to being healthy, natural for you etc. Low glycemic is better on the whole and when it comes to fats, unsaturates are better than saturates, the latter being animal based as opposed to the better plant based fats or oils. Fats should not be totally eliminated (even though that would not be an easy task) as simple fat molecules (lipids) are what cell walls are created from.

      Sugars or carbohydrates are a hot topic also. Think simple rather than complex or refined. Plants by virtue of nature produce simple carbohydrates and our bodies have no problems dismantling these for use. The consumption of grains, cereals and fruit and vegetables will go along way in keeping your heart system in good working order.

Staying alive with activity in mind

This doesn’t mean becoming athletic overnight as this will end you quicker than you started. More so getting of the couch and get things happening. Use any opportunity you can to walk a little more, switching the TV off usually helps here. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator or lift. Try parking the car a little further away from your destination. Just be creative on this topic, generally speaking some is better than non at all. Many experts now agree that accumulating 30 mins of physical activity a day is a big step in the right direction.

Clearing the smoke

 Virtually everyone is now full aware that that it is a prime factor in many cardiovascular vascular illnesses as well as cancer, emphysema, and many oral deseases. For your hearts sake take a breath of fresh air instead and butt out that stub forever.

Some beneficial items to add to your diet.

Garlic

It’s healthful properties have been known for some 5,000 years. It’s powerful aroma is also the substance that gives make it beneficial. So if your eating it with a partner make sure he/she eats some also otherwise you will be out of luck.

Grape seed extract

A natural source of folic acid.

Hawthorn berry extract

Has a long history of medicinal uses by herbalists.

Carambola fruit

Also known as `star fruit’ which comes from Asia and is very high in vitamin C.

L-Arginine

Semi-essential amino acid found in meats, wheat germ, cottage cheese, ricotta, nuts, eggs, milk and granola.

Taurine

Also an amino acid found in red meats, fish, beef, human milk and animal tissue.

Blood pressure is the force in the arteries when the heart beats (systolic pressure) and when the heart is at rest (diastolic pressure). It’s measured in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). High blood pressure (or hypertension) is defined in an adult as a blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 mm Hg systolic pressure or greater than or equal to 90 mm Hg diastolic pressure.

High blood pressure directly increases the risk of coronary heart disease (which leads to heart attack) and stroke, especially when it’s present with other risk factors.

High blood pressure (HBP) is a serious condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, and other health problems.

“Blood pressure” is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps out blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage the body in many ways.

There are several different categories of blood pressure and they are the following:

• Normal Rate – not more than 120/80
• Pre-hypertension Rate – 120-139/80-89
• Stage 1 High Blood Pressure -140-159/90-99
• Stage 2 High Blood Pressure – 160 and above/100 and above

People with high blood pressure should immediately consult a doctor for ways to control and it. There are several causes of high blood pressure and they are the following below:

• Obesity
• Smoking and drinking
• No exercise
• Too much salt intake
• Stress
• Genetics (heredity)
• Old age

Hypertension usually does not have any symptoms and as a matter of fact many people do not know that they already have high blood pressure. The best way to know if you have high blood pressure is to go to the doctor to have it checked.

The following are possible symptoms of high blood pressure:

• Severe headaches
• Dizziness
• Blurred vision
• Chest pain and congestion
• Breathing problems
• Heartbeat irregularities
• Blood in the urine

The following below are most likely to have high blood pressure:

• People who have relatives with hypertension
• Pregnant women
• Women who take contraceptives
• Overweight and obese people
• Physically inactive people
• People who smoke and drink
• People with high intake of salt

High blood pressure can damage the blood vessels that may eventually lead to other conditions including:

• Stroke
• Heart attack or heart failure
• Kidney failure
• Vision problems

Hypertension can be dignosed by a doctor or a nurse by using a special device called sphygmomanometer which consists of a pump, arm cuff, dial, valve and a stethoscope. You can also check if you have a high blood pressure at home by using a device that can be purchased in stores. Regular monitoring of your blood pressure is a good way to control hypertension and it should be done at least after every 3 months.

High blood pressure can be controlled by reducing weight through exercising and maintaining a proper diet. Fruits and vegetables are the most recommend food to eat. Also, doctor-prescribed medicines help in lowering blood pressure. To know more about hypertension and how to prevent it, it is best to consult a doctor.

While there’s plenty of medical advice that indicates the statin family of drugs are highly effective in lowering your levels of cholesterol, there are many people who are seeking alternative non-medical solutions to lowering high cholesterol. These people include the not-so-old who wish to make lifestyle changes now rather than face 30 or more years on medications. Why take the chance of suffering unacceptable side-effects from statin medications, such as erectile dysfunction in males and abdominal pain and muscle soreness in both sexes? Also, the long-term use of these drugs could lead to as yet unknown problems. So, eat a healthy diet low in saturated fats and combine this with the following natural health tips.

Tip No 1: Regular Exercise. Start a program of regular exercise that will lead to achieving a healthy body weight. This means exercising three or four times a week to a level where your heart rate is raised to an acceptable rate for your age. Walking, swimming and cycling are all good activities that don’t place unnecessary strain on your body. Be sure to warm up with at least five minutes of muscle-stretching exercises beforehand. Raised oxygen levels also help your body organs maintain their vitality and firms and tones your muscles.

Tip No 2: Plan Your Menus. Think about the healthy foods you like and plan your meals a week in advance to coincide with food shopping day. This saves you having to make compromises to your diet that involve the wrong foods. It also means you’ll have plenty of low fat products on hand that may be hard to find at the corner store.

Tip No 3: Smart Cooking Techniques. Avoid bad cooking techniques such as deep-frying and try to prepare your foods by simmering, dry baking, steaming or using Asian stir-fry techniques. Even microwaving can allow foods to cook in their natural juices and retain their nutrients. And be sure to eat lots of raw foods, especially fruit and vegetables.

Tip No 4: Take Your Supplements. Supplements such as Omega-3, inositol hexaniacinate, pantethine, and guggulipid can be effective in lowering cholesterol. Supplements for lowering cholesterol should be used as a part of an overall plan that includes diet and lifestyle changes.

Tip No 5: Clean Out Your System. Plan an occasional system cleanout day where you consume only fruit and vegetables. The high water content of fruit and vegetables facilitates the spread of their valuable nutrients through your body and helps flush out the wastes that have built up from eating the wrong foods.
Tip No 6: Relax. Stress and ill health go hand-in-hand. While you can’t and shouldn’t eliminate stress, you can learn to control it by meditation and relaxation techniques and by regular exercise. If you are currently on prescription drugs, don’t stop them without consulting your doctor. But follow these natural health tips and you should be able to lower your cholesterol. In any case, you will certainly be much fitter and healthier.

As these descriptions of the various forms of heart disease indicate, much is known about the causes, often referred to as “risk factors.” Some—such as heredity, age, race, and gender—cannot be controlled. But many others are controllable and there are many ways you can prevent heart disease.

Basically, heart disease prevention falls into two categories: lifestyle or behavior modification

Lifestyle

Cigarette Smoking. The single most important thing you can do to prevent heart disease is not smoke. If you do smoke, you should stop; your risk of heart disease will begin to decline, reaching the level of a non-smoker after 5 to 10 years.

The higher risk of cardiovascular disease in women due to smoking is similar to that of men. Low tar and low nicotine cigarettes seem to be no less harmful than regular cigarettes. A range of studies has shown that women who smoke are from 2 to 6 times more likely than non-smokers to develop heart disease. Statistics from the Nurses’ Health Study, a large, ongoing survey of women’s health, show that half of the cases of heart disease in women aged 30 to 55 can be linked to cigarette smoking.

The most dramatic increase in risk is in women who smoke and use oral contraceptives. Tests have shown that these women are 20 to 30 times more likely to suffer heart disease and stroke than women who do neither. However, most of the data on this subject came from studies done when participants were taking a much higher dose of estrogen than is currently prescribed. As a result, further research is needed on the effects of today’s lower-dose oral contraceptives.

Cigarettes act in a number of ways to increase your risk of heart disease. Smoking causes thickening of the blood, which can lead to clots. It raises the level of carbon monoxide in the blood, robbing the heart and other tissues of needed oxygen. The nicotine in tobacco also constricts the coronary arteries, raising blood pressure, and causing the heart to work harder. Thus smoking increases the amount of oxygen that the heart needs, while at the same time decreasing the amount it gets.

High blood pressure contributes to heart disease because it makes the heart work harder. Controllable factors that contribute to high blood pressure include overweight, lack of exercise, excessive salt intake, and cigarette smoking. It follows logically that losing weight, exercising, limiting salt in your diet, and stopping smoking can reduce blood pressure to healthier levels. Living with continually high levels of stress is also linked to high blood pressure.

The first thing you can do to control your blood pressure is to know what it is. Although you can measure blood pressure with a sphygmomanometer at the supermarket or shopping mall, it is a good idea to discuss the implications of your blood pressure level with your doctor.

Cholesterol, a very popular topic these days, is a substance that circulates in the blood, and is essential for functions such as producing some hormones (including estrogens) and building a protective membrane for our cells. We get some from what we eat, but mostly it is manufactured in the liver.

Cholesterol travels through the bloodstream attached to lipoproteins, compounds composed of fats (lipids), proteins, and triglycerides. There are four kinds of lipoproteins, classified according to their weights: very low density (VLDL), low density (LDL), high density (HDL) and very high density (VHDL). You’ve probably heard about “good” and “bad” cholesterol. The good is HDL, which is associated with a cleansing effect in the blood; and the bad is LDL, which leaves deposits on the interior walls of the arteries, hampering the flow of blood and leading to atherosclerosis.

In general, a total cholesterol count of less than 200 milligrams per deciliter of blood is viewed as healthy; if that count reaches 240, the risk of heart disease doubles. However, most of the studies that have drawn this conclusion have been done on men. One study focusing on women has found that the most important factor predicting coronary artery disease in women is not total cholesterol, but the ratio of HDL to total cholesterol: The higher your HDL, the less likely you are to get heart disease.

Triglycerides are another kind of fat in your bloodstream, but elevated triglycerides are not necessarily associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Triglyceride levels fluctuate widely throughout the day, depending on what you eat. They may, however, be associated with high cholesterol levels.

You can do a great deal to achieve a healthier cholesterol level by controlling your diet. Reducing cholesterol and fat intake, particularly saturated fats, will lower total cholesterol levels. Monounsaturated fatty acids (such as those found in olive and canola oil) tend to raise HDL, so those are the healthiest oils to choose for cooking. Polysaturated oils (safflower, corn) lower LDL, which is good, but also lower HDL. The worst offenders are the saturated fats (meat fat, butter), which raise LDL, lower HDL, and also include cholesterol itself. (For more information, turn to chapter 15, “A Common­Sense Look at Diet and Health.”)

Diet is not the only thing that affects your cholesterol level; other factors include heredity, smoking, and hormones. Estrogen plays an important role in keeping cholesterol levels down, and the hormonal changes of menopause will adversely affect your LDL and HDL counts.

Exercise and weight. Lack of exercise has been shown to be a risk factor for heart disease. Regular aerobic exercise seems to tone the heart muscle and help prevent heart disease. Again, most of the studies about exercise and heart disease have been done on men, but the effects are thought to be similar in women. Strenuous athletics are not necessary; moderate exercise such as brisk walking or stair­ climbing are sufficient to benefit the heart.

Exercise also lowers cholesterol and blood pressure and is usually associated with weight loss. Being overweight also contributes to high cholesterol and high blood pressure, both factors in developing heart disease.

Body shape is another risk factor for heart disease. Women with “apple-shaped” bodies—more weight around the waistline—have a greater risk than “pear-shaped” women who carry most of their weight around their hips.

Women, especially those who have already suffered heart disease and those with high risk factors, should know that although the benefits of exercise usually outweigh the risks, there is a slight chance that strenuous exercise can contribute to heart attacks, strokes, and arrhythmias. You should plan and discuss any exercise program with your doctor, particularly if you have not been physically active for a while.

Alcohol consumption. The effect of alcohol on heart disease is a very controver-sial subject. On one hand, there is plenty of documentation of the negative effects of excessive drinking on not just the heart, but a number of body systems. On the other, a number of tests in recent years have indicated that moderate drinking (1 or 2 drinks a day) may protect against heart disease.

Social and psychological factors. It was once speculated that as women entered the workforce in increasing numbers and began experiencing the same workplace stresses as men, heart attack rates in middle-aged women would begin to approach those of their male counterparts. That has not happened. Women working outside the home have about the same rates of heart disease as women who don’t. Twenty years of research in the Framingham study found that employment itself is not predictive of heart disease, but factors such as high demands and low control of the situation, as well as financial anxiety, are related to higher rates of heart disease.

In men, heart disease has been linked to the so-called “Type A” personality, the impatient, driven, competitive personality type. No similar link has been found in women. In fact, Framingham data have shown that women who suppress anger and hostility are more likely to suffer heart disease than those who express it in the Type A manner. Having depression or anxiety is also linked to increased rates of heart disease in women.

Research over the last 10 years has consistently found that heart disease occurs more frequently in less educated women in lower socioeconomic groups than in better educated women in higher socioeconomic groups. The reasons for this are probably related to a number of factors including poorer health care, lack of health insurance, gender discrimination, and increased stress.

Think of a heart attack victim and you’ll probably picture a middle-aged man, perhaps a little paunchy, most likely a workaholic executive type. It’s a stereotype that has been reinforced by the media and by the medical profession itself, which in the past has focused much of its research into heart disease on this type of patient.
Not Just a Man’s Disease

The facts, however, tell quite a different story. Heart disease is more than just a man’s disease—much more. One in 9 women between the ages of 45 and 64 has some form of cardiovascular disease, ranging from coronary artery disease to stroke or renal vascular disease. By the time a woman reaches 65, she has a 1 in 3 chance of developing cardiovascular disease. And a number of studies show that African ­American women are at even greater risk than these averages.

The reason that so much more attention has been focused on men is that they are much more likely to be stricken with heart disease in their prime middle years, whereas women tend to get it 10 to 20 years later. For most women, it is only after menopause that heart disease becomes a problem. But a woman of 60 is about as likely to get heart disease as a man of 50, and by time they are in their 70s, men and women get heart disease at equal rates.