Heart Disease Doesn t Discriminate Between Men and Women
Heart disease never differentiates between men and women and gone are the days when heart disease was thought to be a male specific disease. With a drastic change in lifestyle, heart disease has taken a primary position in causing death in men and women in the United States.
Out of every three deaths in women, one will be at least out heart disease and the situation now warrants more of concerted efforts for preventing heart disease related deaths in women.
Today heart disease occupies third position in respect of factors causing deaths in women and women who are in the age group of 25-44 years are also increasingly becoming susceptible to heart diseases very similar to their older counterparts in an age group of 45-64 years.
Ethnicity Plays a Vital Role
A detailed study revealed the most disturbing fact of women of black origin dying due to heart disease more than the Caucasian women. One possible reason could be that black women are more obese than Caucasian women and due to obesity, black African-American women are more prone to hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes, the two main known causes for heart disease in a person irrespective of gender.
Varying Symptoms of Women with Heart Disease
Women who suffer from heart disease never exhibit symptoms similar to men. For example, men will experience a crushing and radiating chest pain where as in women the pain will get restricted to their jaws, neck and back. Few women never even exhibit these types of pain symptoms, but may express dizziness, nausea with vomiting sensation, fatigue and a light-headed feeling.
Doctors, who have not had any prior experience or exposure in handling heart disease in women, may tend to brush off these symptoms and may relate the symptoms to some other ailments such as stress, muscle strain or any infection. The most pity part is that even the women themselves will ignore these symptoms and land up in serious trouble later.
Almost 50 percent of women who die out of heart disease have never experienced to recognize any of the heart disease related symptoms such as shortness of breath, or fatigue or cruciating chest pain. Further, the doctors were also could not ascertain whether these women did not actually get any symptoms or they failed in recognizing the symptoms.
Disturbing Survival Rates of Women with Heart Disease
The disturbing and the stark truth are that women are less likely to survive their first heart attack unlike men. In the event of women getting heart attacks and getting admitted in a hospital, they are not likely to return home alive. Further, majority of women who get affected with heart disease meet their inevitable within the first year of the first heart attack.
This reason may possibly be attributed to the inability of women in recognizing their atypical cardiac symptoms and seeking a timely help. One more school of thought is that women s heart being smaller in size than that of men, it could not withstand the major damage to its muscles and hence fall silent very fast.
Due to the difficulty in reading the heart disease symptoms and a higher mortality rate, there is an urgent need for all women to get awareness with regard to heart disease and learn to lead a healthy lifestyle for avoiding heart disease. As a prudent measure, women in the age group of 20 years and above should start discussing the subject with their doctor and learn all the heart disease related matter so as to make a beginning in leading a healthy life.
[tags]Recognizing Symptoms, Timely Help, Survival Rate[/tags]