Measuring waist circumference may be a simple method that women can identify themselves as being at increased heart-attack risk and empower them to seek further evaluation and possible treatment from their doctors.

These findings underscore the need to educate women about their personal risk of cardiovascular disease and educate them that where there is one risk factor present, there are likely more.

Every woman over the age of 20 should know what her risk factors are of heart disease. And we were really surprised to find out in our research last year that 50% of the women that attended our event had abnormal levels of risk factors and didn't know it.

Women are getting more physical activity, they're eating better, and the really positive benefit they're seeing is that they're not only doing this for themselves but our research studies showed they are taking action for family members, so there really seems to be a domino affect of all this effort to educate women.

As you raise the levels of HDL cholesterol, the risk of heart attacks and strokes can decrease.

We didn't know if we'd see the benefits in a trial of women at high risk. And in fact, it does hold out.