Women's Heart Health: Know Your Numbers

Happy Heart Health Month! At the Center for Women's Health, one of our goals is to help provide the resources you need to achieve your own health and well-being. When it comes to heart health, we need to do more than talk about how many women are dying from heart disease, we also need to be helping women live healthier and longer. 

A woman in a yellow shirt picks out fruits at a supermarket.

According to the American Heart Association, lifestyle changes can reduce the risk for heart disease by as much as 80 percent. So to help you get started, we collaborated with OHSU cardiologist Dr. Abigail Kahn to develop this quick reference guide to numbers for a healthy heart. 

  • 1/2 –the portion of your plate that should contain fruits and vegetables at each meal
  • 1 –the number of safely-consumed alcoholic drinks per day for women
  • 4–the number of ounces in one glass of wine
  • 65 –the age of a cardiac event in a female family member that increases your own risk
  • Under 140/90 –the target reading for blood pressure
  • 2400 –the maximum number of milligrams of sodium (about a teaspoon of salt) per day for most healthy people
  • 10,000 –the ideal number of steps to take each day

Visit the American Heart Association's Know Your Risk page for more details on preventing heart disease and stroke.