What Top Docs Wish You Knew About Heart Disease

By Michelle Bender

It’s the No. 1 killer of women, beating out all types of cancer combined. Protect your health—and your life—with these 10 expert tips.

You know that your favorite kickboxing class helps keep your ticker—as well as your figure—in top shape, and that your fast-food habit may cause your cholesterol level to rise. But you’re young and healthy, so the chances of having a heart attack or stroke in the near future are pretty slim, right? Wrong. Heart disease kills more women between the ages of 25 and 44 each year than breast cancer. “It’s a myth that just men and older people get it,” says Kathy Magliato, M.D., director of women’s cardiac surgical services at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.

The good news: Research has shown that 82 percent of heart disease can be prevented through lifestyle changes. To find out exactly what to do to avoid a diagnosis, we went to the country’s leading female cardiologists and heart disease experts and asked each of them for the most  important step you can take to start lowering your risk today.

“Being thin and fit isn’t a heart health guarantee.” – Kathy Magliato, M.D., Cardiothoracic Surgeon and Director of Women’s Cardiac Services at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California

It’s true that being a couch potato and overweight or obese makes you more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke. But a recent survey from the Society for Women’s Health research found that almost 36 percent of women didn’t know that even if you eat right and exercise, you can still have dangerously unhealthy cholesterol levels. “Other risk factors, including age, heredity, and high blood pressure, can be even bigger predictors than weight,” says Magliato.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can ignore the scale. “The heart has to work harder to supply blood to a bigger body, so it’s constantly under increased stress,” says Magliato. “Also, if that extra fat is around your waist, it can interfere with metabolism, increasing your risk of diabetes and raising your cholesterol level.” So keep up the good for- you habits and maintain a body mass index under 25, but also pay attention to your other risk factors.

“Good health habits don’t cancel out the negative effects of smoking.” – Dawn Calderon, D.O., Cardiologist and Director of the Women’s Wellness Program at the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Brown Mills, New Jersey

Sorry, but there’s no wiggle room here: If you light up regularly, your risk of heart disease is two to four times greater than that of a nonsmoker. Studies also show that smokers who have heart attacks are more likely to die (and suddenly—within an hour). “Nicotine puts a lot of stress on blood vessels, deprives the body of oxygen, and accelerates the buildup of plaque in the arteries,” says Calderon. It can also lower HDL (high-density lipoprotein, or “good”) cholesterol, raise LDL (low-density lipoprotein, or “bad”) cholesterol, and make blood platelets stickier, upping the risk of clots.