Study: Young Women Must Do More to Prevent Heart Disease

On Tuesday, U.S. Preventive Medicine, a privately owned company that organizes and commercializes the market for proactive preventive health services, announced that a new study showing young women are dying of heart disease even as the death rate for men has leveled off offers strong evidence that prevention is the best solution to fighting the war on cardiovascular disease.

The study shows that more women under the age of 45 are dying of heart disease due to clogged arteries, while at once the death rate for men of that age range has leveled off.

Health experts believe that the increasing rates of obesity and other risk factors are to blame for the rising rate of cardiovascular disease in young women.

According to Christopher T. Fey, the chairman and CEO of U.S. Preventive Medicine, preventive care often ends for American adolescents when they leave the care of a pediatrician; and doesn't pick up again until the symptoms of heart disease occur later in life.

"Advancements in treatment and preventive measures, such as prescribing cholesterol-lowering medications, are improving the outcomes for thousands of individuals. The problem, however, is that...millions of people at risk right now [would] benefit from low-cost preventive care...The disease process starts early in life," Fey said.

33% of American women die of heart disease, and it can begin developing as early as one's teenage years. Heart disease is also the number one killer of women over the age of 40. In women the untreated conditions for the disease rise dramatically in middle age when their bodies begin producing less estrogen. 7% of women between the ages of 45 and 64 have heart disease.

However, the number one cause of heart disease in women, just as it is for men, is lifestyle, and health experts caution that it is almost never too late to make changes in one's lifestyle that can dramatically reduce the risk of heart failure.