Attn Midlife Women: You are catching up to men in heart disease (and this form of equality is not good)

Science Daily reports that in the new issue of the Journal of Women's Health that in a change from previous decades that women are catching up to men in instances of heart disease. While men still have higher instances than women for people under 60, over the past 10 years, men's rates have been improving while women's rates have gotten worse.

Among the findings:

* High risk blood pressure - both diastolic and systolic - increased in women but decreased in men. Medication against hypertension appeared to be more effective in men than women.

* Both men and women saw a decrease in high-risk HDL cholesterol, but men showed greater improvement. The use of cholesterol-lowering medication increased somewhat more for men.

* More women than men had high C-Reactive Protein (a marker of infection that in elevated levels has been shown to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease). This appears to be associated with increased use of hormone-replacement therapy.

Heart disease remains the number one cause of death in the U.S.