<International Circulation>: Heart disease is the number one killer in women. Is heart disease inevitable for women?
<International Circulation>: Is stricter control of the risks for cardiovascular disease in young adult women especially important?
Dr Hochman: It turns out that the risk factors – diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and cigarette smoking – are much more powerful risk factors in young women than they are in older women. Age, itself, is an important risk factor. Once you age, it turns out the other risk factors are not as big of a contributor, but these risk factors are markedly more important in young women. Young people in general need to be targeted early to understand the importance of control of risk factors and particularly, to not start to smoke.