Smoking, diet, threaten women's hearts

(ANSA) Rome, March 31 - Cholesterol and smoking are the main threats to Italian women's hearts, accounting for as much as 67% of cases of female heart disease in Italy, the Italian cardiologists' society said Tuesday.
    After those two factors, the others in decreasing order of importance are diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, said Francesco Romeo, president of the society, at the presentation of the campaign "Live with the heart" to encourage women to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
    Smoking is evidently the most difficult factor for fun-loving Italian women to resist, according to Roberta Pacifici, of the Higher Institute of Health.
    "The greater predisposition to develop nicotine dependency in women is well known," said Pacifici, "they have less propensity to quit, call help lines less, have a greater number of relapses ... smoking is a disease, not a vice, until that is understood the problem will not be defeated".