Heart disease and women

ACT IN TIME

Recognizing and treating a heart attack right away dramatically improves a patient's chance for survival. The typical American, however, waits 2 hours before calling for help.

text continues below

"Time is heart muscle," says Nieca Goldberg, M.D., chief of the Women's Heart Program at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and author of Women are Not Small Men: Life-Saving Strategies for Preventing and Healing Heart Disease in Women. "If you get to the hospital during a heart attack, we can administer aggressive clot-busting treatments."

Studies have shown that drugs that dissolve coronary blood clots during a heart attack can reduce the death rate in both men and women, although women have a higher risk of stroke from the therapy. Unfortunately, statistics show that a woman in the midst of having a heart attack receives clot-busting therapy much later than a man would.

"Women coming into the hospital for a heart attack have a higher death rate and higher risk of complications. A premenopausal woman having a heart attack has twice the death rate of a similarly aged man," says Goldberg.

Know the warning signs and always call 911 within 5 minutes of the onset of symptoms, advises James Atkins, M.D., program director of emergency medicine education at UT Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School. By acting quickly, a heart attack victim is less likely to experience cardiac arrest (where the heart stops beating).

PREVENTION TIED TO BELIEF

There is no denying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But preventing a disease means believing you are actually at risk -- and many women fail to see that.

"Women absolutely need to become more aware of their risk for heart disease," Goldberg says. "Whenever a woman comes to see me after a heart attack, I always ask when they last felt well. Often it was several months, even a year, before the attack."

Women are advised to take charge of their health by working with their doctor to address risk factors, and keep tabs on cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and lifestyle.

According to the American Heart Association, low blood levels of "good" cholesterol (high density lipoprotein, or HDL) are a stronger predictor of heart disease death in women than in men. Also, a major study showed that post-menopausal women taking hormone replacement therapy have an increased risk of heart attack and death by coronary artery disease.

"Heart disease is the leading women's health care issue," says Goldberg. "If your symptoms aren't taken seriously, seek a second opinion."

WOMEN & HEART DISEASE

Source: American Heart Association

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) ranks first among all disease categories in hospital discharges for women
More than 43% of all female deaths in the US and most developed countries are due to CVD.
In 1997, CVD killed about twice as many women as all forms of cancer combined.
More women than men will die within the first year after a heart attack
Only 8% of women in America believe CVD is their greatest health threat.