September 29 is Dress Red Day, a day to draw attention to cardiovascular disease in women. These problems are still too often overlooked, because the symptoms are different in women than in men.
The diagnosis of heart attack is more often – incorrectly – not made in women than in men. This has several causes. A heart attack is four times more common in men under the age of 40 than in young women. The expectation pattern among men is therefore greater. The complaints that women get are also different from the symptoms of men. A woman's body is not the same as a man's. Upper abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting sometimes overshadow more recognizable heart attack symptoms such as breathlessness and chest pain. As a result, women are sent to an internist and afterwards it turns out to have been a stroke. Another difference between men and women is how they deal with the signals. When women suddenly get complaints, they think:what have I done wrong? They look for an explanation and wait a while. In retrospect, that turns out to be valuable time. Men, on the other hand, are slightly more likely to go to the doctor with their complaints.
Distinguish
It is a sum of factors that make women and their practitioners less likely to think of a heart attack. Fortunately, more and more attention is being paid to the differences between men and women and to specific advice and treatment plans aimed at women. In addition, it is also important to distinguish between women. Some women are at greater risk of having a heart attack than others. That has to do with specific factors. For example, women who have had preeclampsia are twice as likely to have a heart attack. A pregnancy is actually a kind of stress test for your later risk of cardiovascular disease. Nearly half of the women with preeclampsia already had high blood pressure by the age of 40. Such elevated blood pressure can cause women to have a heart attack within a few years of pregnancy.
Stress, chemo and other risk factors
Another factor that increases the risk of a heart attack is breast cancer. But one breast cancer is not the other. Heavy treatments with chemotherapy and radiation do have an impact on the heart. A heart can withstand some blows, but at a later age the consequences can still cause a heart attack.
Lifestyle also plays a role in a heart attack. Multi-tasking, stressing and sitting behind the computer en masse also do not contribute to a healthy heart. French research shows that the risk of heart attack in women under 60 has doubled in the past 15 years. Among women under the age of fifty, this number has even tripled. This is mainly due to obesity and smoking. Ninety percent of women who had a heart attack before the age of fifty-five smoked. In addition, we are all getting fatter.
Genes and the transition
Currently, cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in women. This includes strokes, such as a brain haemorrhage. In general, women have a stroke earlier and a heart attack later in life. But this too is changing because of our unhealthy lives. According to the cardiologist who spoke to Santé, it is the clichés that can reduce the risk of a heart attack:Eating healthy, exercising a lot, quitting smoking. A healthier life can keep a lot of misery at bay.
Know your risk
Does heart failure run in families? Then you may be at greater risk. This has to do with the rise in your blood pressure and cholesterol. Usually, cholesterol does not increase until after the menopause, but this can also happen earlier. It is remarkable that women who are early in the menopause are also more likely to have a heart attack. A woman who is already going through menopause by the age of 40 is often more likely to have a heart attack than a woman who is going through menopause after her 50s. This also has to do with genes. The advice is to keep a close eye on your blood pressure and cholesterol by regularly measuring how high they are. This gives you more insight into your condition and whether you run the risk of having a heart attack. Your blood pressure and cholesterol are indicators of your fitness. Take those signals seriously.
