WOMEN'S HEART HEALTH

Did you know - Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women?

Many women think their risk of breast cancer is higher... but in fact, the chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer is 1 in 18, whereas 1 in 2 women will have cardiovascular disease.

Complexity is intimately related to women's heart health: the factors leading to why women get heart disease, how women experience heart disease, how women are diagnosed (or not diagnosed, as the case may be) with acute coronary events, and how risk factors can be modified to have a better outcome.

There have been many studies looking into the science of heart rate variability. Dr Ary Goldberger at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess, has a laboratory to investigate the beat-to-beat variation in normal and diseased hearts. Dr Goldberger's research demonstrates that variability is the norm, and loss of variability in heart rate characterizes states such as congestive heart failure and coronary disease.

Is there increased heart rate variability in women?

It may be possible that women have increased heart rate variability. Researcher Dr XX at the University of Havana in Cuba has a data set which... this may be explained in women's inherently more plastic and variable physiological state, so that they can accomodate to changing processes over the lifespan such as pregancy, menopause, etc.