Women's heart attack symptoms

Did you know that nearly five times as many women will die from heart attacks this year than from breast can­cer? One rea­son heart attacks are so dan­ger­ous in women is because they are dif­fi­cult to recognize.

Osama Ibrahim, M.D., a car­di­ol­o­gist for Mercy Tri-City Med­i­cine, answers your ques­tions on women’s heart attack symp­toms and heart disease.

What are symp­toms of a heart attack in women?
Even when chest pain is absent, most women do notice signs of trou­ble dur­ing a heart attack. The most com­mon symp­toms are:

• Short­ness of breath
• Weak­ness
• Unusual fatigue or tired­ness (not related to exercise)

Other com­mon symp­toms include:

• Pain in the upper abdomen, lower chest, neck, back, jaw or shoulder
• Diges­tive dis­com­fort (nau­sea, vom­it­ing, heartburn)
• Dizzi­ness, light­head­ed­ness or fainting
• Break­ing into a cold sweat
• Rac­ing or flut­ter­ing heartbeat

What is a com­mon issue women have when faced with a med­ical emer­gency like a heart attack?
Many women wrongly assume that if they do not feel any chest pain, their ill­ness is not an emergency.

Because their heart attacks can be more dif­fi­cult to rec­og­nize, women need to know and respond to female heart attack symp­toms. A woman who has symp­toms of an inten­sity or per­sis­tence she has never felt before should call 911 right away — even if she is not sure that she is hav­ing a heart attack.

What are the risk fac­tors for heart dis­ease in women?
Women should also be aware of their risk fac­tors for heart dis­ease includ­ing hyper­ten­sion, high cho­les­terol, dia­betes, smok­ing and most impor­tantly a fam­ily his­tory of heart disease.

What steps can women take to lower their risk of heart dis­ease?
Eat a diet low in salt, cho­les­terol and sat­u­rated fat and do 10 to 30 min­utes of walk­ing or other mod­er­ate exer­cise most days of the week. Avoid or quit smok­ing, limit alco­hol con­sump­tion to one drink a day and find healthy ways to cope with stress and anxiety.

What would you rec­om­mend women do at least once a year for their heart health?
Finally, visit your pri­mary care physi­cian at least once a year to dis­cuss your per­sonal risk and get rec­om­mended screen­ings. Your doc­tor can help you make a plan to address any treat­able risk fac­tors like dia­betes, high cho­les­terol and high blood pres­sure. Work­ing with a physi­cian you trust can pro­vide the sup­port you need to reach your goals and live a richer, health­ier life.

To locate a Mercy physi­cian near you, please call 1-877-247-6161 or visit MercyOnline.org/doctors.

Posted by Jason Hawk on Apr 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.