Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 24, 1995                   TAG: 9501240088
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TAKE NOTE

Cardiovascular diseases kill more than 479,000 women a year, compared to about 447,000 men, according to the American Heart Association. About 39 percent of women who have a heart attack die within a year. The rate for men is 31 percent.

"The good news is that medical advances and attention to exercise and eating habits have reduced women's rate of death from heart diseases - and women and men both can help bring the rate down further by eating sensibly and getting a reasonable amount of exercise," said Tom Magri, president of the Radford Unit of the AHA.

Cancer is not the biggest threat to women, the heart association's statistics show:

Heart attacks kill more than 235,000 women and lung cancer about 53,400 women a year.

Strokes kill more than 86,700 women a year, while about 43,600 die of breast cancer.

From 1981 to 1991, the age-adjusted death rate for women declined 28 percent for coronary heart disease, 30.2 percent for stroke and 23 percent for all cardiovascular diseases.

For more information, call the AHA at 1-800-242-8721.