Men vs. Women—Even Our Hearts Are Different!

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Added: Wed. Sep 01, 2010 6:54pm
Posted in: Health

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Quick! Who dies of heart attacks more frequently—men or women? Women it turns out. While the rate of death from heart disease has been declining for men, it’s been increasing for women, according to the American Heart Association’s statistics.

What’s the number #1 killer of women in the U.S.? Not breast cancer, as you might think, but heart disease. Some 6.4 million women in the U.S. have heart disease. Although pre-menopausal women seldom have heart attacks, post-menopausal women whose hearts are no longer protected by estrogen quickly become vulnerable. Moreover, smoking increases the risk of heart disease more dramatically for women.

For both sexes, as many as 1 in 5 heart attacks may go undetected, according to a report in the American Journal of Cardiology, primarily because victims ignore symptoms. Making diagnosis problematic for women is the fact that while some get the classic symptoms—chest and arm pain, a squeezing sensation in the chest and shortness of breath—many others experience atypical symptoms, such as dizziness, nausea and pressure between the shoulder blades.

The good news is that heart disease is becoming easier to diagnose and treat with options ranging from diet and exercise to statins and surgery. Prevention, of course, remains the key. Keeping blood pressure and cholesterol levels low and not smoking are excellent steps for both men and women.

Sources: The John Hopkins Medical Letter, April 2003. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reported in Time Magazine, February 10