Heart Disease in Women Still Not Well Understood

Heart diesease in women is an important and, according to the American Heart Association, still poorly understood topic. Data collected by the agency reveals that fewer than one in five doctors know:

• Heart disease kills more women than men
• Women are six times as likely to die of heart disease than breast cancer
• Heart disease kills more women older than 65 than all cancers combined

Dr. Sharonne Hayes, director of the Mayo Clinic's Women Heart Clinic, has just published a new study showing that gender differences in heart disease and high blood pressure continue to be poorly understood and not well researched.

According to Dr. Hayes, "We need to be able to tell women whether the diagnostic tests we order are accurate and how treatments will affect them, but today we don't have enough data specific to women."