Fitness Files: Women should take risk of heart disease more seriously

“Women are six more times likely to die of heart disease than breast cancer.”

“More women die of heart disease than men.”

“‘Broken heart syndrome’ is a condition affecting women more frequently.”

“Heart disease in women is handled less aggressively than in men.”

These quotes caught my eye as I researched last week’s article debunking an email recommending the coughing cure for a suspected heart attack.

My friend Laurie, a former cardiac care nurse, read my last article and emailed advice from her firsthand hospital experience: “Next, write about women’s heart disease.”

Yep, Laurie, exactly what I was thinking.

The National Institutes of Health’s “How Does Heart Disease Affect Women?” lists three types of heart disease:

•Coronary heart disease. Plaque builds up in a major artery, narrowing the artery or causing a blood clot, which inhibits or blocks blood flow to the heart.

•Coronary microvascular disease. This affects more women than men and occurs when “the walls of the hearty’s tiny arteries are damaged or diseased.”

•Broken heart syndrome. This too occurs most often in women when “extreme emotional stress leads to severe (but often short-term) heart muscle failure. In this syndrome there is no plaque buildup, the patient “has previously been healthy” and “most people make a full recovery.”

The American Heart Assn.’s initiative GoRed for Women adds:

•Arrhythmia or abnormal heart rhythm, preventing the heart from getting enough oxygen.

•Heart valve problems causing blood to flow improperly.

In forbes.com, Martha Gulati, cardiologist and author of “Saving Women’s Hearts,” says, “We should be horrified that women don’t get the same lifesaving therapies” as men when medical aid is sought.

Science.Mic quotes Mayo Clinic cardiologist Patricia Best, who explains that women tend to think they couldn’t be having a heart attack and that even if they see a doctor, they sometimes feel “rebuffed or dismissed.”

“Must be the flu,” women with symptoms of dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath and chest pain will say. Or they will label their feelings acid reflux, considering that to be a normal sign of aging. Doctors hearing women’s laundry list of symptoms can, as Best says, “misdiagnose or prolong the search for appropriate testing.”

Lets look harder at women’s symptoms, from WebMD:

•A vise being tightened anywhere in the chest.

•Pulsating pain in arms, back, neck or jaw — more common in women.

•Stomach pain. Women can experience severe abdominal pressure.

•Shortness of breath, nausea or lightheadedness.

•Sweating, not from exercise, but a “cold sweat.” This is common among women.

•Severe fatigue, when you can’t even walk to the bathroom.

The American Heart Assn. adds, quoting Dr. Susan Steinbrum, director of New York City’s Lenox Hill Heart and Vascular Institute: “Trust your gut feeling. Ninety percent of my women patients who’ve just had a heart attack tell me that they knew it was their heart all along. They just had a feeling.”

Silent Heart attack.org says: “Do not let pride get in the way of saving your life. If you feel you’re having a heart attack, seek medical attention ASAP even if you are not sure. Don’t worry about being embarrassed or it could cost you your life.”

I dish out all kinds of advice and follow my instructions to exercise and eat vegetables.

But I’d chew an aspirin and hide in a closet to avoid calling an ambulance and demanding an EKG and blood enzyme test. I’m one female who’d better read this one twice.

Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK is a retired teacher who ran the Los Angeles Marathon at age 70, winning first place in her age group. Her blog is [email protected].