Women's health issues were brought to the forefront yesterday with a special one-day seminar.

The Ministry of Legislative Affairs and Women's Issues and the Women's Advisory Council joined forces to stage the Women's Health Seminar at the Number One Shed in Hamilton.

More than 100 people attended the event which featured doctors and other health-care professionals discussing a myriad of topics including AIDS, fitness and stress.

Legislative Affairs and Women's Issues Minister Yvette Swan told the audience that although the focus was on women's health, the seminars were of importance to the entire community.

"Women's health affects the health of children and families since women are the ones who usually care for the children, husbands and the elderly,'' Senator Swan said. "And on top of that 82 percent of us work.

"Overall the health of women suffers from increasing stress in the home and workplace. They sacrifice their health because they are busy taking care of others.'' And Premier Pamela Gordon reminded the mainly female audience that they could not continue to play so many roles unless they took care of themselves.

Participants learned that cardiovascular disease was the number one killer of women with those over the age of 65 having a one-in-three risk of suffering a heart attack.

And family doctor Fiona Ross said that women were less likely to survive a heart attack than men.

Dr. Ross warned women that diabetes, obesity and hypertension were a "dangerous'' combination which could add up to a heart attack.

To decrease the risk, she suggested a diet rich in vegetables and fruit, as well as taking vitamin E and an aspirin a day.

With breast cancer awareness month coming to a close, the audience learned that early detection of the disease could lower the death rate by 30 percent.

"It is not a death sentence,'' activist and breast cancer survivor Shirley Humphreys said. "There's no sure way to prevent it, but the best way not to die is to catch it early.'' Cancer specialist Sidney Lowry revealed that Bermuda was not following the North American trend regarding lung cancer.

Dr. Lowry said that as a major killer, lung cancer was overtaking breast cancer in the western world, but Bermuda was bucking that trend.

He said that could be attributed to the fact that less people smoked in Bermuda than in the US.

Women were also urged to keep an eye on their blood sugar levels to ward off diabetes.

Diabetic nurse educator Angria Bassett informed the participants that one-in-three local women over the age of 65 had diabetes.