TWEED women are being urged to pay more attention to their heart health, as part of the Heart Foundation Making the Invisible Visible campaign.

Heart Foundation Patron and Governor of New South Wales David Hurley met with local health professionals on Wednesday to encourage better conversation between female patients and their doctors about heart disease.

"The whole program of alerting women to be aware of what the symptoms are for a heart attack because they're quite different to men,” Mr Hurley said.

"Most people would be quite surprised when they discover that.

"We're just trying to get that awareness out and coordination between organisations, like the Heart Foundation, local area health networks and the community to make sure they're aware of healthy living and healthy lifestyles.”

Heart Foundation NSW CEO Kerry Doyle said that more than 90 per cent of Australian women have at least one modifiable risk factor for heart disease, and half of all women have two or three risk factors.

"Women in the Richmond Tweed area are at even greater risk of heart disease with over sixteen percent being smokers, compared to the national average of just over thirteen percent and over a third being obese compared to the national average of 27.5 per cent ” Ms Doyle said..

"Our statistics show that that the rate of heart attack among local women is considerably higher than the NSW average - it's actually the second highest in the state and the fifteenth highest nationally.”

For more information about women's heart disease or to learn more about the Making the Invisible Visible campaign, visit www.heartfoundation. org.au.