Although we know a lot about how risk factors for cardiovascular disease relate to dying in middle-aged men, middle-aged women, and young men, no one has sat down and checked it out for women. Researchers at Northwestern University filled that gap.

What the researchers wanted to know: Do women with few risk factors have a lower risk of dying from coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and all other causes? (Yes, I know, everyone dies eventually. They're talking about when the women die.)

What they did: The researchers used the Chicago Heart Association Detection Project in Industry Study, which enrolled about 40,000 men and women in the Chicago area in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For this study, they looked at about 7,300 women who were aged 18 to 39 and didn't have coronary heart disease or a wonky EKG reading at the beginning of the study. At that time, the original researchers also recorded participants' blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, and other health information.

What they found: Women who started out with low blood pressure and low cholesterol, didn't smoke, and had a body mass index of less than 25 were better off in the long term. Their risk of dying over 31 years of coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, or anything else was lower than women with more risk factors.

What the study means to you: Not a real big surprise, is it? This suggests that even young women should be watching those heart risks.

Caveats: They looked at risk factors only once, at the beginning of the study.

Find out more: "Heart disease isn't just a man's disease," according to this page from the American Heart Association.

Read the article: Daviglus, M.L., et al. "Favorable Cardiovascular Risk Profile in Young Women and Long-Term Risk of Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality." Journal of the American Medical Association. Oct. 6, 2004, Vol. 292, No. 13, pp. 1588-1592.

Abstract online: http://jama.ama-assn.org