Heart disease kills more women than breast cancer

Washington

HIGH CHOLESTEROL, a risk factor for heart disease, affects nearly one in five American women who are at least 40 years old. Although heart disease is the No 1 cause of death in women, there is little agreement on what to do about managing cholesterol.

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 17.7 per cent of women aged 40 to 59 had high cholesterol, as did 17. 2 per cent of those 60 and older. That's a higher percentage than men in the middle-age cohort (16.5 per cent) and dramatically higher than men in the older cohort (6.9 per cent).

The CDC report didn't address why women are faring worse than men in the amount of cholesterol circulating in their blood. Women take cholesterol-lowering medications (the vast ma…