The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women Major Risk Factors for
Heart Disease Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease
and stroke. More than 65 percent of people who have diabetes die
of some type of cardiovascular disease. Diabetic women are at
especially high risk for dying of heart disease and stroke.
Today, 7 million women in the United States have diabetes,
including an estimated 3 million women who do not even know they
have the disease. The type of diabetes that most commonly
develops in adulthood is type 2 diabetes. In type 2 diabetes,
the pancreas makes insulin, but the body cannot use it properly
and gradually loses the ability to produce it. Type 2 diabetes
is a serious disease. In addition to increasing the risk for
heart disease, it is the #1 cause of kidney failure, blindness,
and lower limb amputation in adults. Diabetes can also lead to
nerve damage and difficulties in fighting infection. The risk of
type 2 diabetes rises after the age of 45. You are much more
likely to develop this disea