heart disease is more than a serious health issue, it is the number-one cause of death in both women and men: roughly 600,000 people die of heart disease in the U.S. every year. But because women have longer life expectancy than men, they constitute a larger proportion of the elderly population in which the likelihood of cardiovascular disease is greatest. For the past three decades, there have been significant declines in heart disease mortality for both men and women, especially in the older population. However, recent data suggests a lack of improvement in heart disease rates in women age 55 and younger. Source
