News Story: List of Heart-Friendly Cities for Women

Minneapolis Tops List of Heart-Friendly Cities for Women By Randy
Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
Mon May 19, 11:46 PM ET


MONDAY, May 19 (HealthDay News) -- Women who want to keep their hearts
in tip-top shape face the fewest challenges in Minneapolis,
Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

Those three cities top the list of the 10 most heart-healthy U.S.
metropolitan areas for women, a list that's dominated by western
communities.

But the list, released Monday by the American Heart Association, also
found the 10 metropolitan areas -- mostly in the South and the Midwest
-- that spell trouble, with Nashville, Tenn., St. Louis and Detroit
deemed the least friendly major cities for women's heart health.

"It's fair to say that if you live in the least heart-healthy cities,
there's a chance that you'll have a high (likelihood) of heart disease
and stroke and may have a shortened lifespan," said Dr. Jennifer
Mieres, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and director
of nuclear cardiology at the New York University School of Medicine.

Heart disease is the leading killer of American women. An estimated
one-third of women suffer from heart problems, according to the
American Heart Association, which says cardiovascular disease kills
more women than the next five most common causes of death combined.

The heart association's "Go Red For Women" campaign commissioned
Sperling's BestPlaces, which ranks the best places to live in the
United States, to conduct the study. It included an analysis of 22
factors affecting women's heart health, including rates of
cardiovascular mortality, high blood pressure, exercise, and smoking.

The review, which also looked at factors like stress levels and the
numbers of people who commute by bicycle or on foot, encompassed the
200 largest metropolitan areas in the country.

The most heart-friendly metro areas for women are:

Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minn. Washington-Arlington-
Alexandria, District of Columbia San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland,
Calif. Denver-Aurora, Colo. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass. Seattle-
Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Ore. San Diego-
Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif.
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz.

Minneapolis-St. Paul, Boston and Phoenix have the lowest heart-disease
mortality rates for women, while women in San Francisco, Denver and
Los Angeles are the thinnest.

Women in San Francisco, San Diego and Washington, D.C., are the
healthiest eaters, and those in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San
Francisco smoke the least.

The least-friendly metropolitan areas for women are:

Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro, Tenn. St. Louis, Mo. Detroit-Warren-
Livonia, Mich. Pittsburgh, Pa. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
Columbus, Ohio Cincinnati-Middletown, Ohio Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev.
Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Ohio Indianapolis, Ind.

The researchers reported that women in Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio, and
San Antonio, Texas, are among the most overweight in the country.

Women smoke the most in Cincinnati, Nashville and Indianapolis, while
they eat the least healthy food in St. Louis, Kansas City, Kan., and
Milwaukee.

The heart-unhealthy cities seem to share some things in common, Mieres
said, like a plethora of fast-food restaurants, a tendency for people
to drive instead of walk, and high smoking rates.

They may also have fewer teaching hospitals and fewer doctors per
capita, she said. "When you look at the middle of the country and the
South, they are about a decade or five years behind in getting the
message that simple changes in diet and activity can have an impact,"
she said.

However, living in one of these 10 cities doesn't guarantee an
unhealthy future, Mieres said. "What we're trying to do is to get
women across the country to recognize that whether or not you live in
a heart-friendly city, heart disease can be prevented."

Dr. Nieca Goldberg, medical director of the Women's Health Program at
New York University Medical Center, agreed. "The wrong take-away
message is that you would have to move to prevent heart disease," she
said.

Another cardiologist, Dr. Lori Mosca, director of preventive
cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/ Columbia University
Medical Center, said future studies should look at factors like air
quality, bans on trans fat in restaurants, and the availability of
fresh produce in inner cities.

"These are some of the environmental factors that may have a
significant influence on heart disease that are within the social and
political control of cities," Mosca said.

But the best advice remains: Eat healthy, get physically active, and
track your blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and weight and keep
them in a healthy range.

Learn more about heart disease in women from the American Heart
Association.