Women & Heart Disease
Everything About Women and Heart Disease
1. An Equal Opportunity Killer
Heart disease does not only inflict men. Heart disease is
currently the leading cause of death for both women and men
in the United States. Nearly one in every three women will
die of problems related to heart disease. And today, women
also have to worry about heart disease younger than ever before.
Heart disease has been identified as the third leading cause
of death among women ages 25-44, and the second leading cause
of death among women who age 45-64.
2. Ethnicity
According to the studies, black women have higher risks to
die of heart disease than are Caucasian women. Researchers
believe this is highly related to the higher levels of obesity,
high blood pressure and diabetes in African-American women.
Symptoms Of Women With Heart Disease
Clinical studies have shown that women experience heart attack
symptoms different than those of men. Usually, men experience
a crushing chest pain that radiates to their left arm. As
for the women, they are more likely to experience pain in
the jaw, neck, or back. Some women experience no pain at all,
but often feel dizzy, nauseous, or light-headed, and/or deeply
fatigued.
Physicians who have not studied women and heart disease may
dismiss these symptoms as a result of stress, a minor muscle
strain, or a transient infection. Worse, there are women who
fail to seek help as they could not recognize their symptoms
as being related to heart disease.
More than one half of women who died from heart disease had
no previously recognized cardiac symptoms such as chest pain,
shortness of breath, fatigue, and etc. Once again, it is unclear
whether these women actually had no symptoms or whether the
symptoms they did have gone unrecognized.
Unfortunately, the survival statistics of women with heart
disease are pretty grim. Compared to men, women are less likely
to survive the initial heart attack, and are less likely to
get out of the hospital alive, and more likely to die within
a year of their first heart attack.
This condition may reflect women's inability to recognize
atypical cardiac symptoms and seek immediate help. However,
the fact that women's hearts are smaller than men's and can
therefore sustain less damage may also play a part.
Due to the grim survival statistics, it is especially important
for women learn to prevent heart disease through healthy lifestyle
choices and appropriate medications.
Therefore, women should start talking to their doctors about
the risk of heart disease and planning strategies for prevention
when they are in their mid-twenties. As the saying goes, an
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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