Your Weekly Checkup: What You Need to Know about Heart Disease in Women
“Your Weekly Checkup” is our online column by Dr. Douglas Zipes, an internationally acclaimed cardiologist, professor, author, inventor, and authority on pacing and electrophysiology. Dr. Zipes is also a contributor to The Saturday Evening Post print magazine. Subscribe to receive thoughtful articles, new fiction, health and wellness advice, and gems from our archive.
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Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a heart attack.
The American Heart Association has led the effort to educate women about their risk of heart disease, stressing that more women die of heart related problems (1 in 4) than of breast cancer. In fact, the AHA has stated that “Every minute in the United States, someone’s wife, mother, daughter or sister dies from heart disease, stroke or another form of cardiovascular disease.”
Each year, more than 30,000 women younger than 55 years old are hospitalized with an acute heart attack. Importantly, women may be more likely than men to experience lesser-known heart attack symptoms such as chest pressure, tightness, or discomfort, in addition to chest pain. The pain and discomfort can be in the jaw, neck, arms, or between the shoulder blades. Heart attack symptoms unrelated to chest pain can include shortness of breath, a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness. Misinterpreting such heart attack symptoms can put women at a greater risk of death.
Young women with an acute heart attack may have more health conditions such as congestive heart failure, hypertension, renal failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes mellitus. They may also experience a longer length of stay in the hospital and have higher in-hospital mortality than men. Women with a history of autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriatic arthritis, as well as a history of preeclampsia, hypertension during pregnancy, and gestational diabetes, have increased risk for heart disease.
Some women may not have obstructions in the large coronary arteries that men exhibit but rather have involvement of small coronary arteries that may escape notice but are still able to cause a heart attack.
Women undergoing procedures such as coronary artery stent placement or coronary artery bypass surgery may experience worse outcomes than men, a finding possibly related to other health conditions and increased surgery-related complications.
Women need to be aware of their heart disease risk, how symptoms can present, and the potential outcome. Prevention is the fundamental order of the day, which can be impacted by healthy lifestyle choices such as a proper diet, exercise, blood pressure control, and smoking cessation. A happy marriage helps.
Finally, if you suspect you are having heart problems, do not hesitate to call your health care professional, or 911 if it’s an emergency. Do not worry about false alarms. It is better to be safe than sorry.
Predictions: Can Diet Prevent Heart Attacks?
By the 1960s, research was already showing that the typical American diet increased the risk of heart attack. This article from the January 25, 1964, issue of the Post shared new studies about attempts to reduce the risk.
The great hope and challenge lie in the facts that any man can control the risks of heart attack by controlling his living habits. There is no guarantee that by reducing each risk he can escape or postpone a heart attack, but there is a mounting mass of evidence that he can build some protection. Controlling even one of these hazards should boost the chances for longer life. Control them all, and your heart, in a sense, gets nine lives.
This article is featured in the July/August 2017 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
Your Action Plan for a Healthy Heart
Soon after Stan Hattaway woke from the fog of quadruple bypass surgery, he vowed to forever change his old eating and lifestyle habits. “It used to be that I never saw a cheeseburger I didn’t like, and if there was barbecue, well, just bar the door,” says Hattaway, who runs a marketing and advertising agency with his wife, Cathy, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“Now, I just don’t have the desire to eat like that anymore. I exercise regularly and am probably in the best shape of my entire life.” Indeed, since suffering a heart attack and undergoing the ensuing surgery in October 2011, Hattaway has stuck closely to a plant-based diet rich in beans, vegetables, and fruits. He typically exercises every day of the week, and takes a coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) supplement, which has been shown to benefit heart patients, plus a low-dose prescription statin.
Hattaway’s situation has prompted him to take what some may view as drastic measures in his quest to reverse heart disease, and new research affirms that many elements of his approach have relevance for anyone seeking to keep heart disease at bay, ward off a heart attack, or reverse the effects of heart disease.
And plenty of people fit the profile. Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year 715,000 Americans suffer a heart attack, while heart disease kills about 600,000 people annually, accounting for 25 percent of all recorded deaths. The CDC estimates the total annual price tag for coronary heart disease in the U.S. at $108.9 billion.
Though the statistics are daunting, there is also guarded optimism. Past generations were armed with only sketchy information about how to prevent heart disease, but now we live in an era in which highly advanced research is capable of providing new insights into how factors such as inflammation, diet, exercise, stress, sleep, and even a positive outlook might impact heart health. What is emerging is an increasingly clear blueprint for living a heart-healthy lifestyle.
For the five major (and simple!) steps to improving your heart health and reducing the risk of heart disease, pick up the Jan/Feb 2014 issue of The Saturday Evening Post on newsstands, or
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Eat Color!
Foods naturally red, blue, and purple contain powerful anthocyanin antioxidants widely believed to benefit the heart and blood vessels. And now there’s proof that eating three or more servings of strawberries and blueberries per week may help women reduce their risk of a heart attack by one-third—according to a large study of women aged between 25 and 42 registered with the Nurses’ Health Study II. Scientists from the University of East Anglia in collaboration with the Harvard School of Public Health say anthocyanins in berries may help dilate arteries and counter the build-up of plaque. “We have shown that even at an early age, eating more of these fruits may reduce risk of a heart attack later in life. This is the first study to look at the impact of diet in younger and middle-aged women,” says the lead researcher.
The American Heart Association recommends at least 4.5 cups per day of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy lifestyle that can help avoid risks for heart disease and stroke. Eating enough fruits and vegetables also has other benefits: the recommendation to reduce cancer risk is the same.