On average 48 women die of heart disease in New Zealand every week. This makes Heart disease the single biggest killer of women in New Zealand, yet most women don’t know this.

So why are most women are largely unaware of their risk of heart disease?

I think that this because women tend to overrate the risk of dying from breast cancer and therefore underrate the real risk of dying from heart disease.

There is also a misconception that heart disease is a man’s disease, possibly due to the fact that before age fifty, twice as many men as women have heart disease. And, until recently, most medical research was done on men, with the few studies that were done on women were not widely published.

Women may also be unaware of their risk of Heart disease because it affects them differently than men, which means women often present with different symptoms to men.

The good news about heart disease is that nearly all of it is preventable, and much of it may be reversible.

Women Aged 40-60 Should Take Steps to Lower the Risk of Heart Disease

Every woman aged 40-60 should be concerned about heart disease, because, that’s the age range when a woman’s risk of heart disease starts to rise. However, women of all ages should monitor their blood pressure regularly, heart disease can begin early, even in the teen years.

The good news about Heart Disease is that it’s also never too late to improve heart health — even for those who have already had a heart attack.

If you want to avoid or reduce your dependence on medication, you may want to try Vedic Meditation, which is very effective at lowering blood pressure.

Vedic Meditation can lower blood pressure by about as much as taking a blood pressure medication: by about ten points systolic and six points diastolic.

Vedic Meditation is good not only for your heart but for disease prevention in general

The regular practice of Vedic Meditation strengthens the body’s inner intelligence leading to healthier more balanced functioning not only in the cardiovascular system but in the immune system, central nervous system, and probably other systems of the body as well. And all without the need for dramatic changes to one’s life style.

However, if you combine Vedic Meditation with a good heart healthy diet, regular exercise and better sleeping habits you really notice an improvement in your overall health and wellbeing. With the added bonus of being more relaxed and able to ‘roll with the punches’ – to transcend the stresses in life.

For more information on women’s heart health in New Zealand visit: The NZ Heart Foundation

Many antihypertensive medications and lifestyle changes are proven to reduce blood pressure. Over the past few decades, numerous additional modalities have been evaluated in regard to their potential blood pressure–lowering abilities.

However, these nondietary, nondrug treatments, collectively called alternative approaches, have generally undergone fewer and less rigorous trials.

This American Heart Association scientific statement aims to summarize the blood pressure–lowering efficacy of several alternative approaches and to provide a class of recommendation for their implementation in clinical practice based on the available level of evidence from the published literature.

Read the full AHA Scientific Statement > Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure