Heart Disease Affects Women, Too

It's thought of as a man's disease, but it kills more women than men. Coronary heart disease is the single largest killer of American women, claiming more lives than any form of cancer. All heart and blood vessel diseases combined kill more than 485,000 women each year.

The physicians of Texas Medical Association urge you to learn the facts about women and heart disease, and if you're a woman, take the necessary steps to save your life.

Women have some different heart disease symptoms than men, particularly symptoms of heart attack. Women are more likely than men to feel shortness of breath; arm, jaw or neck pain; abdominal discomfort; nausea; fatigue; swelling in the legs or a fluttering heartbeat when having a heart attack. It's important to keep in mind, however, that these symptoms can be caused by other conditions, and, therefore, should be evaluated by a physician.

Women and men have many of the same risk factors for heart disease, but some of these risk factors have greater impacts on women. Diabetes is one such risk factor. The risk of heart attack and stroke is higher for diabetic women than diabetic men.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is another major risk factor for both women and men. More than 60 percent of women over 65 have high blood pressure, putting them at greater risk for heart disease. After age 75, women are much more likely to develop high blood pressure than men.

High blood cholesterol is a risk factor for both sexes, but here's a difference: Research suggests that a woman also might be at risk for heart attack if she has high triglyceride, or fat, levels in her blood. This risk also appears to be greater in women than in men.

Other risk factors include:

• Age/menopause - The chances of developing heart disease increase as women age, beginning with the onset of menopause. The high estrogen levels in a woman's body before menopause serve as protection against cardiovascular disease. After menopause, the estrogen levels are lower, increasing the risk of heart disease.
• Smoking - Women who smoke are two to four times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than women who don't smoke.
• Obesity - Even if a person has no other risk factors, being obese is enough to put someone at risk for heart disease. Obesity also contributes to the development of high blood pressure and diabetes and is linked with high cholesterol and high triglyceride levels.
• Physical inactivity - Heart disease is almost twice as likely to develop in sedentary people than in active people.
• Family history of heart disease - This becomes a more serious risk factor if combined with other risks.
• Race - African-American women between the ages of 35 and 84 are 1.4 times more likely to die of a heart attack than white women of the same age.

These facts are sobering, but there is hope. One of the best ways for you, as a woman, to reduce your risk for heart disease is to eliminate the risk factors over which you have control.

Also, if you are a postmenopausal woman, consider hormone replacement therapy. This therapy has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease by 20 to 50 percent in studies of postmenopausal women. However, there are risks involved in taking hormone replacement therapy, including a possible increase in the risk for breast cancer, so discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this treatment with your doctor.

- From the Texas Medical Association

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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