5 ways for women to protect heart health

But because the causes and symptoms of heart attacks can be strikingly different between the sexes, women are more vulnerable to slower diagnosis and inadequate treatment, according to a new scientific statement published Monday in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation. “Most heart disease research is done in men, so how we categorize it is based on men”.

“Despite stunning improvements in cardiovascular mortality for women in the past two decades, heart diseases remains understudied, underdiagnosed and undertreated in women”, Beckie and a group of co-authors write in their paper.

Women also have “more complex” causes of heart attacks than men. “People are predisposed to think of heart disease as a man’s disease”, said Dr. Marie Gerhard-Herman, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. For young women with diabetes, the risk for heart disease is four to five times higher than it would be for a similar young man.

Understanding gender differences can help improve prevention and treatment among women.

“Compared to men, women can have less severe blockages”, the Heart Association said.

Certain cardiovascular risk factors are more potent in women, including type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

Compared to white women, black women have a higher incidence of heart attacks in all age categories and young black women have higher in-hospital death rates.

“I had no idea I was having a heart attack”, says Marsha.

“The result is the same, when blood flow to the heart is decreased for any reason, a heart attack can occur”, the group said.

“Women, more often, tend to have a plaque erosion where smaller pieces of plaque break off, become exposed and cause the formation of smaller blood clots which may or may not cause total occlusions all at once, leading to a more subtle presentation”, Sahni, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “But the numbers show that far more women die of heart disease”, said co-author Laxmi Mehta, director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Program at The Ohio State University Medical Center.

Delay in seeking treatment is more common among women than men. That adds up to 53,000 women dying from heart attacks every year.

Cardiac rehabilitation is prescribed less frequently for women, and even when it’s prescribed, women are less likely to complete it than their male counterparts.

And their symptoms are different.

Dr Mehta said: ‘Frankly, women are great at nagging their spouses, so they make sure their partner takes their medications, goes to cardiac rehab, eats better and sees the doctor. For example, high blood pressure is more strongly associated with heart attacks in women and if a young woman has diabetes her risk for heart disease is 4 to 5 times higher compared to young men. But they still damage the big arteries that bring blood to the heart.