Did you know that:

• 250,000 women a year die from heart disease?
• 39 percent of women who have heart attacks die within a year, compared to 31 percent of men?
• At older ages, women who have heart attacks are twice as likely as men to die from them within a few weeks?

If you smoke cigarettes, have high blood pressure, have been diagnosed as having high blood cholesterol, are overweight, are diabetic, get little or no exercise, take oral contraceptives and smoke, are post-menopausal, or have a mother or father who had a heart attack before age 60 -- YOU ARE AT RISK FOR HEART DISEASE.

Steps you can take to reduce your risk of heart disease include:

• Quit smoking.
• Follow a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet (30 percent or less of total calories come from fat).
• Walk 30-60 minutes a day, at least three days a week.
• Take your high blood pressure medication as ordered by your doctor.
• Maintain your ideal body weight.
• Use another form of contraception if you smoke and use the pill.
• Keep your diabetes under control.

Baptist Hospital East offers comprehensive services for people with heart disease. For more information, call the hospital's Information Center at (502) 897-8131.

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