Heart-attack in Women – A Silent Killer

Heart attack is one of the major causes of women’s death after breast cancerdefine and poses a great threat to women. At least one in three women dies of heart disease or stroke. The fact is that women are as much vulnerable to a heart attack as men.

While heart disease becomes significantly prevalent among women after they reach menopause, it can and does affect younger women too. According to the American Heart Association, heart disease kills about 16,000 young women and accounts for 40,000 hospitalizations in young women in U.S. every year. So, women of all ages need to become aware of it and take steps to prevent heart disease.

The symptoms of heart attack in women may be different than those experienced by men. Heart attack symptoms in women are much more subtle as nearly half of women experience no chest pain at all during an acute myocardial infarctiondefine or AMI. They must be aware not to ignore any signs of impending danger.

Women might experience subtle early warning signals before a heart attack. They could get a hint that something is seriously wrong, at least a month ‘before’ their heart attack. According to a study by The National Institute of Health, women were likely to experience vague symptoms including shortness of breath, unusual tiredness or fatigue, and sleep disturbances 30 days prior to a heart attack.

However, the fact is that most women simply discard these symptoms as something related to a normal aging process. What they fail to realize is that these are actually an early warning of the heart attack. Although both men and women have heart attacks, more women eventually die from having a heart attack.

Heart Attack Symptoms in Women:
Heart attack symptoms usually are quite subtle in women and they may experience any one or more of the following symptoms. However, timely treatment can limit the resulting damage to the heart.
• General discomfort, anxiety, and loss of appetite
• Shortness of breath
• Unusual fatigue
• Dizziness, nausea
• Pain between shoulder blades
• Feeling of heartburn or indigestion
• Chest discomfort

After talking about the various symptoms of this deadly and silent killer called heart attack, let us briefly discuss the important measures to prevent or reduce the chances of heart disease in women. Women must go in for periodical check up of blood pressure annually to control the possible fluctuations induced by changes in their lifestyle and age.

Diabetes can also raise your chances of getting a heart attack or cardiovascular disease. So, get your blood sugar checked at regular intervals.

Over weight women with high cholesterol levels and those with a slightly under-active thyroid gland are also at an increased risk of death from heart attacks. A thorough assessment of cholesterol including LDL, HDL, and triglycerides is highly recommended to reduce the risk factors.

It becomes eminent for women to proactively discuss the topic of heart diseases and heart attack with their gynecologist and formulate a plan to eliminate the risk to their lives. In case of any emergency, get to the hospital as quickly as feasible to prevent your life. Remember, by bringing the desired changes in our diet and following a stress-free lifestyle, we can prevent diseases like heart attacks.