Women neglect heart health, warns WHO

HEART attacks and strokes kill twice as many women than all cancers combined, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned yesterday, as it celebrated World Heart Day.

"Although most women fear cancer, particularly breast cancer, they do not make the same efforts to safeguard themselves against heart disease, which is eminently preventable," said Catherine Le Gales-Camus, WHO assistant director-general, in a statement.

"We must strive to make women aware that to keep their hearts healthy they need to eat smart, kick smoking and move for health," she advised.

The UN's health body along with the World Heart Federation held activities worldwide yesterday to increase awareness about cardiovascular diseases that claim some 16.5 million lives annually 8.6 million of the victims are female. To coincide with World Heart Day, the WHO also published the biggest-ever collection of reports into heart disease, gathering information from studies taken in 21 countries between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, said Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe, editor of the document.