You may be surprised to learn that four times more women die from heart disease than breast cancer. That's equivalent to more than 11,000 Australian women dying from this preventable disease each year! While cancer organisations have done a fantastic job at raising breast cancer awareness, it's time to take heart and protect this vital organ. A few tweaks to your lifestyle is all you need to slash your odds of developing heart disease.

1. Move more: When we talk about moving more, we're not just talking about reaching the exercise guidelines of 150 minutes (five 30 minute sessions) moderate physical activity each week. We're also talking about sitting down less. According to new research, you can be ‘active' (meeting the exercise guidelines), but highly sedentary and this is anything but healthy. Sitting down for prolonged, unbroken periods of time induce muscular inactivity and have been linked to increased waist circumference, blood pressure, triglyceride levels (a type of blood fat) and good HDL cholesterol levels. So on top of getting your daily 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise make sure you sit less, move more, more often.

2. Reduce your waistline: For optimal health, it's best for us females to keep our waist circumference under 80cm. A larger waist circumference means there is excess fat around the vital organs and this fat is also closer to the heart. As your waist circumference increases, you are more at risk of developing high cholesterol levels, high triglyceride levels and high blood pressure levels. All these factors significantly increase your risk of developing heart disease.

3. Stress less: Ladies, are you stressed at work? If you are younger than 50, you have a 35 per cent greater risk of developing heart disease than women who are comfortable with their workplace pressure, says new Danish research. However, the study also found that workplace stress did not have the same effect in women aged 50-64 years.
If you're feeling the pressure at work, tackle it in a positive way by getting active during work hours or finding another way to de-stress - it may be having a cup of tea. It's also a good idea to speak to your colleagues to determine the best way to manage the pressures.

4. Quit smoking: If you smoke, quitting is one of the best things you can do for your heart. Smoking is a major cause of atherosclerosis - the build up of fatty substances in the arteries. Atherosclerosis reduces blood flow through the arteries and increases your risk of developing heart attack and stroke. While there is no safe amount of smoking, women who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day have more than twice the risk of heart attack than non-smokers. For those of you who smoke and take an oral contraceptive pill, this also greatly increases your heart disease risk, particularly if you're 35 years or over.

The good news is though within one day of quitting smoking your heart rate slows down and your blood pressure drops slightly. Within two to three months, your ability to smell and taste improves, as too does the blood flow to your hands and feet, while your lungs regain the ability to clean themselves. After one year of quitting, your risk of heart attack is greatly reduced. If you're a smoker, pick up the phone today and call the Quitline on 131 848.

5. Drop the salt: A diet high in salt causes high blood pressure, which is the leading risk factor for heart attack and stroke. The average Australian consumes 9g of salt each day, when it fact we should be consuming just 1-2g of salt daily. Seventy-five per cent of the salt we eat comes already added to foods such as sauces, breads, breakfast cereals and soups, to name a few. A 3g drop in salt intake reduces stroke and heart disease risk by 15 and nine per cent respectively. Reduce your salt intake by ceasing to add salt during cooking and at the table, purchase reduced salt and no added salt products and limit the amount of processed meats consumed. Learn to use herbs in your cooking instead of salt.