Many of us already know that heart disease is one of the most common causes of illness and death in this country, and one of the most common causes of death for women.
In fact, heart disease is the cause of death for one in three women, and it kills more women than all cancers combined. In the US, cardiovascular disease leads to a similar number of deaths in men and women and is also the leading cause of death in women worldwide. Women and men die almost equally each year, and as a result. Many people are unaware of heart disease and the risk to women.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 44 million women in the United States are affected by cardiovascular disease, and that 90% of these women actually have one or more risk factors that develop into cardiovascular disease over time.
Coronary artery disease is the most common form, and those who have already had a heart attack are at higher risk of having a second one. Women are also likely to be worse off than men with heart attacks and develop heart disease about a decade later than women with men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If you have a family history of early heart disease, if your mother or sister had heart disease before the age of 55, or if your father or brother had it before the age of 65, you are at an even higher risk of having it, which means that by the age of 55 you are more likely than your siblings to have it. More than half of women aged 40 to 69 who survive their first heart attack will have fatal coronary heart disease within five years, and more than a third of women who survive their second heart attack.
When women have a heart attack, they are more likely to have the classic feeling of chest pain that accompanies the event, but the symptoms of heart disease are also more subtle than those of men, who are more than twice as likely to have chest pain. While women may experience the crushing chest pain that men often describe, the effects of heart disease on women’s health and overall health in general are likely to initially be more of the same symptoms as men when you suffer from heart disease, such as heartburn, nausea, and exhaustion.
Women with heart disease tend to be the same as men in terms of blood pressure and heart rate. This may be because women tend to have more microvessels in their arteries – the small ones that supply blood to the heart – than men, a condition known as microvascular disease, which may also explain why so few women have the classic “crushing chest pain” that signals coronary heart disease.
Anyone who thinks that heart disease is something to worry about may be tragically mistaken. About 80 percent of all heart disease is preventable, and women need to know their risks to act. CPR can be useful knowledge when someone in your family has heart disease. Being able to help until help arrives will always help with the outcome in any situation.
We also need to pay particular attention to our risk factors for heart disease. Listed on the Go Red for Women website. There is a CDC article listing all the risk factors associated with heart attacks in women. Open a page on the Mayo Clinic’s website under this link, listing ways you can reduce your risk of heart disease.
The same number of women and men die of heart disease each year, but fewer women than men survive. Women are at higher risk of stroke than men, and 90 percent of women have at least one heart attack or stroke in their lifetime. More than one-third of US women (23.5 million) suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease. Factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity are contributing to heart disease being the leading cause of death in American women.
Women who have heart attack symptoms and report family members – heart attacks are more likely to be reported to health care workers – receive life-saving treatment than men. Although heart disease is the number one cause of death in the US, some women attribute the symptoms to other, less life-threatening conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Many women have symptoms of heart disease before they have an emergency such as a heart attack.
Please call your dr. immediately if you have had any symptoms for more than 24 hours. It could be very serious. Always tell your dr, if heart disease runs in the family. Also, if anyone in your family has had heart attacks.