Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and author of 12 fitness bestsellers. She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider.

OK, last week I blogged about the crappy economy and how you can do a penny-pinching workout. Well I'm sick of talking about the economy! Aren't you sick of it too? So -- not that we won't be visiting that topic again anytime soon -- but I thought we could turn our attention to a subject you can actually do something about: Your heart. Yes, in honor of Valentine's Day (and National Healthy Heart Month), let's talk about the American Heart Association's cardio health stats for women, how they differ from the men's stats and what you can do to protect yourself against heart disease. I know Anne Hathaway's special thermo fat-blasting diet drink and Kate Hudson's amazing portable liposuction machine are more likely to be on your Hot List, but are these tools really going to save your life? No! Read on, please.

One of the reasons that heart disease is under-diagnosed and under-treated in women is that women's heart attacks tend to unfold differently than men's. Rather than the classic crushing pain in the chest and numbness down the left arm that most people associate with having a heart attack, women often experience upper abdominal pain, pain below the chest or lower back pain. They may feel nauseated, short of breath or might experience unusual fatigue for days or even weeks leading up to an attack. Warning signs can be intermittent and often intensify during physical exertion. Women are more likely to delay seeking treatment than men because they don't connect what they're experiencing to a problem with their heart.