WHAT IS HEART DISEASE?

Heart disease is a term given to a variety of conditions that can affect the heart.  It is often used interchangeably with the term cardiovascular disease which refers to all diseases of the heart and circulation.

OVERVIEW OF TYPES​

Heart disease comes in many forms: examples of the most common ones being heart attacks, heart failure, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, coronary valve disease, abnormal heart rhythms, cardiomyopathies, inherited or congenital heart disease, coronary microvascular disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease.

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WHAT WOMEN NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HEART DISEASE 

Many women are not aware of the risk of developing heart disease as it is often seen as a condition of men. Heart disease is the number one cause of mortality of women in the U.K.  It is a little known fact that it kills more than twice the number of women than breast cancer. Women are six times more likely to get heart disease than breast cancer.  There are currently over 3.5 million women in the U.K. living with heart disease.  Each year around 28,000 women die from it and around 70,000 women attend hospital due to a heart attack.  That's over three women every hour. 

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Despite these facts, many women are unaware of the risks of heart disease and the message clearly needs to get out.