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A woman's risk of dying from heart attack and stroke is 14 times greater than from breast cancer. Unlike breast cancer, heart attack and stroke are largely preventable.

While cardiovascular death is declining in men, it has been steadily rising in women for the past 25 years. Despite recent attention given to heart disease in women, this trend has not changed. Much more need to be done. Cardiovascular risk in women are under-diagnosed and untreated. At NJ Preventive Cardiology, we have been advocating equal treatment - treating women as aggressively as men.

Framinghan Risk Score is heavily relied upon to determine risk and treatment in asymptomatic men and women. The above example demonstrates how it works. A man and a woman with identical risk factors, a man scores 26% (high risk) at age 50 and therefore eligible for highly effective preventive drug therapy while a woman scores only 13% (intermediate risk) at same age - not eligible for the same highly effective preventive drug therapy. She has to wait at least another 20 years.

Even if a woman is eligible for treatment, like after a heart attack or stroke, she is not likely to be treated to the recommended treatment goals. In the above study, 90% of women with known heart disease were not treated to goal. Only 10% were at goal.

Annual screening mammography after age 40 is considered a standard of care. It saves lives - one life save for every 1,792 women undergoing annual mammography for 14 years. In women with known heart disease, statin therapy will prevent one event in 1 out of 10 women treated for 5 years. In high women without heart disease, 1 out of 48. And generic statin pills cost only 10 cents per day. Highly cost effective.