Women
Network >> Health
& Environment
 |
Getting Heart Smart
Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer of Americans, but many women don't realize they're at risk until it's too late. Now several groups are hoping to change that.
Just a few years ago, heart disease was considered a man's problem. Women especially if they were under 50' didn't worry too much about the cholesterol clogging their arteries or the possibility that pain in their chest might signal serious trouble. Now we know that ignorance could be deadly: More women in America die of cardiovascular disease than all kinds of cancer combined. And it's not just older women who need to be concerned about heart disease.
The choices you make long before menopause, when women's risk of heart disease starts rising, determine how healthy you'll be later on. Do you get regular exercise? Do you watch your weight? Do you know your cholesterol levels? The answers to all of these questions should be yes.
Raising women's awareness is the goal of the Heart Truth campaign, launched in 2002 by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, along with the Office of Women's Health, the American Heart Association and WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. February is the campaign's big month, starting with a splashy New York fashion show on Feb. 3 to publicize the campaign's symbol: a red dress. All the publicity has apparently helped make women more conscious of their risk factors for heart disease and how they can be healthier. According to a recent survey published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, women's rate of awareness that heart disease is the leading cause of death nearly doubled from 30 percent in 1997 to 55 percent today.
Now that they've got our attention, scientists are finding out that heart disease in women looks very different than it does in men. Dozens of studies in recent years have highlighted these variations. Here's a rundown of some recent findings.
Diagnosis: Women with stable chest pain are less likely to be referred for testing, according to a British study published last month in Circulation. Men with the same symptoms got more diagnostic tests, artery clearing procedures or medication, the researchers said. After a year of follow-up, these women were twice as likely as men to have a heart attack or die.
Even when women's symptoms are taken seriously, doctors may miss things. In another study of nearly 1,000 women who had received angiograms an imaging procedure that allows doctors to see whether blood vessels are clogged researchers found only a third of the women had blockages that showed up. But more than half of those without obvious blockages actually had potentially fatal abnormalities in their arteries that only became clear after additional testing. Without more tests, the women would have been told incorrectly that their hearts were healthy. Many women have been falsely reassured, says Dr. Noel Bairey Merz, medical director at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, who oversees the WISE study (for Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation). Her advice to any women still feeling chest pain after a negative angiogram. Seek out a physician for more testing.
Treatment: Women are more likely than men to be readmitted to the hospital after bypass surgery, according to a study by Canadian researchers published in circulation last month. The study suggested that women may have been sicker when they were admitted because they delayed seeking help or their symptoms were ignored by medical personnel.
Another study published last July in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that the benefits of taking aspirin differ between men and women. Aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack in men, but cuts the chances of having a stroke in women. It had no effect on a woman's chances of getting a heart attack or dying of cardiovascular disease.
Prevention: Several recent studies have shown that women can play an important role in lowering their risk of heart disease by watching their weight and staying physically active. But you have to do both because the effect is cumulative. Just keeping your weight down isn't enough. A sedentary lifestyle alone makes you more vulnerable to heart disease even if you are a normal weight. A high level of fitness protects against metabolic syndrome, according to a study presented last November at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. Metabolic syndrome is the name for a cluster of symptoms including abdominal fat, high cholesterol and blood pressure and insulin resistance that increase the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. This is an issue for younger people as well. A study released this week from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study shows that both men and women who have no risk factors for cardiovascular disease at age 50 live substantially longer than people who have two or more risk factors.
What's the take-home message? You need to take charge of your heart health now. A good first step is to assess your risk. You need to know your blood pressure and cholesterol levels (including HDL and LDL both the good and bad kinds and triglycerides, the fat found in your blood).
By Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert from Newsweek.com
Just a few years ago, heart disease was considered a man's problem. Women especially if they were under 50' didn't worry too much about the cholesterol clogging their arteries or the possibility that pain in their chest might signal serious trouble. Now we know that ignorance could be deadly: More women in America die of cardiovascular disease than all kinds of cancer combined. And it's not just older women who need to be concerned about heart disease.
The choices you make long before menopause, when women's risk of heart disease starts rising, determine how healthy you'll be later on. Do you get regular exercise? Do you watch your weight? Do you know your cholesterol levels? The answers to all of these questions should be yes.
Raising women's awareness is the goal of the Heart Truth campaign, launched in 2002 by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, along with the Office of Women's Health, the American Heart Association and WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. February is the campaign's big month, starting with a splashy New York fashion show on Feb. 3 to publicize the campaign's symbol: a red dress. All the publicity has apparently helped make women more conscious of their risk factors for heart disease and how they can be healthier. According to a recent survey published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, women's rate of awareness that heart disease is the leading cause of death nearly doubled from 30 percent in 1997 to 55 percent today.
Now that they've got our attention, scientists are finding out that heart disease in women looks very different than it does in men. Dozens of studies in recent years have highlighted these variations. Here's a rundown of some recent findings.
Diagnosis: Women with stable chest pain are less likely to be referred for testing, according to a British study published last month in Circulation. Men with the same symptoms got more diagnostic tests, artery clearing procedures or medication, the researchers said. After a year of follow-up, these women were twice as likely as men to have a heart attack or die.
Even when women's symptoms are taken seriously, doctors may miss things. In another study of nearly 1,000 women who had received angiograms an imaging procedure that allows doctors to see whether blood vessels are clogged researchers found only a third of the women had blockages that showed up. But more than half of those without obvious blockages actually had potentially fatal abnormalities in their arteries that only became clear after additional testing. Without more tests, the women would have been told incorrectly that their hearts were healthy. Many women have been falsely reassured, says Dr. Noel Bairey Merz, medical director at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, who oversees the WISE study (for Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation). Her advice to any women still feeling chest pain after a negative angiogram. Seek out a physician for more testing.
Treatment: Women are more likely than men to be readmitted to the hospital after bypass surgery, according to a study by Canadian researchers published in circulation last month. The study suggested that women may have been sicker when they were admitted because they delayed seeking help or their symptoms were ignored by medical personnel.
Another study published last July in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that the benefits of taking aspirin differ between men and women. Aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack in men, but cuts the chances of having a stroke in women. It had no effect on a woman's chances of getting a heart attack or dying of cardiovascular disease.
Prevention: Several recent studies have shown that women can play an important role in lowering their risk of heart disease by watching their weight and staying physically active. But you have to do both because the effect is cumulative. Just keeping your weight down isn't enough. A sedentary lifestyle alone makes you more vulnerable to heart disease even if you are a normal weight. A high level of fitness protects against metabolic syndrome, according to a study presented last November at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. Metabolic syndrome is the name for a cluster of symptoms including abdominal fat, high cholesterol and blood pressure and insulin resistance that increase the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. This is an issue for younger people as well. A study released this week from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study shows that both men and women who have no risk factors for cardiovascular disease at age 50 live substantially longer than people who have two or more risk factors.
What's the take-home message? You need to take charge of your heart health now. A good first step is to assess your risk. You need to know your blood pressure and cholesterol levels (including HDL and LDL both the good and bad kinds and triglycerides, the fat found in your blood).
By Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert from Newsweek.com
Home
Women Partner
Links to this post:
Create a Link
~ back home