Earlier this month, the American Heart Association (AHA) released new guidelines specifically targeted at women and cardiovascular disease. In an effort to raise awareness about the severity of this disease in this subpopulation, the AHA launched a public awareness campaign to promote the guidelines among the medical community as well as the general public. Cardiovascular (meaning relating to the heart and blood vessels) disease – or CVD – includes coronary heart disease and stroke, which are the number 1 and number 3 killers of women in the U.S. But many women don’t realize this and are unaware of their own risk of developing CVD, which prompted the AHA to become more aggressive in its outreach campaign.

The goal of the new CVD guidelines is to help healthcare providers prevent CVD in their female patients. The guidelines establish risk categories for women 20 years of age and older and make recommendations for treatment based on these classifications, including diet, exercise, smoking cessation, and appropriate use of aspirin, cholesterol-lowing drugs, and other medications. The guidelines were developed by an expert panel through careful review of hundreds of scientific studies that examined clinical outcomes from CVD risk-reducing interventions.

An important part of these guidelines is measurement of women’s lipid levels, especially low-density lipoprotein (LDL) – the “bad” cholesterol. Optimal lipid levels specified in the guidelines are:

LDL-C less than 100 mg/dL [2.59 mmol/L]

HDL-C greater than 50 mg/dL [1.30 mmol/L]

Triglycerides less than 150 mg/dL [1.70 mmol/L]

Total cholesterol minus HDL less than 130 mg/dL [3.37 mmol/L]

[These are similar to values recommended for men. For a discussion of the optimal lipid values for men and women, see the AHA’s page: “What are Healthy Levels of Cholesterol?”]

These guidelines have been endorsed by a variety of organizations, including the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health (which has been calling for everyone 20 and older to have their cholesterol tested at least once every five years) and the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. The intent of the guidelines is to assist physicians in identifying those female patients at risk for developing CVD so that preventive measures can be taken.