The good news is that heart disease in women can be reversed. The bad news is that a surprisingly high number of women, aged 50 or over, don’t know that heart disease is the leading cause of death in their age group. Moreover, even though 80 percent of those women surveyed said they had taken a cholesterol test, only 50 percent knew that 200 was a desirable cholesterol level. This lack of awareness of basic health knowledge could prove to be very dangerous in light of the recent studies that show that, given the proper attention, it may be possible to control heart disease in older women.
In one study, lovastatin, a new and promising cholesterol-lowering drug, seems to work well in women. The drug has already been proved effective in men. According to researchers, the main benefit of lovastatin is that it reduces “bad” cholesterol (LDL) which has been linked to heart disease.
Another study, involving both women and men with existing heart disease, discovered that when LDL levels were lowered, blockages of the arteries that serve the heart also decreased. It is known that if one or more of these vessels is blocked it could result in angina, heart attacks, and other serious problems.
In still another study, conducted at Harvard University, researchers have learned that the lower doses of estrogen may be just as effective as heavier ones in reducing heart-attack risk in postmenopausal women. The study showed that a dose of .625 milligrams provides just as much protection against heart attack as twice that dosage does. Researchers say that the smaller dose reduced LDL levels by 15 percent within three months. The smaller dose also raised HDL or “good” cholesterol levels. For every one percent drop in LDL, there is a two percent drop in heart-attack risk, according to the researchers.
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