I don’t know how many people realize that heart disease is just as big a killer in women as in men.   In fact, it is the #1 killer of women.  They estimate that 1 in 2 women will die from a heart attack compared to 1 in 25 who will die from breast cancer.  That makes it particularly important for women to know the symptoms of a heart attack.

The reason the mortality rate for women is much higher is due to the fact that women and some physicians fail to recognize the symptoms of a heart attack in women and do not initiate effective treatment soon enough. In the 45 and over age group, heart attacks kill more women than breast cancer does.  

Heart disease tends to strike women 10 years later than men.  It hits women between 55-65 years of age as opposed to men between 45-55 years of age.  Because of a woman’s long life expectancy it is just as much of a threat.

Everyone knows the classic symptoms of a heart attack.  The crushing chest pain that feels like an elephant is sitting on your chest, heavy pressure or squeezing in the center of the chest, pain radiating down the left arm, nausea or vomiting, shortness of breath, light-headedness, or sweating.  But in women they may or may not have the classic symptoms.  Women may have a sharp pain rather than a pressure sensation and some may lack any discomfort in their chest at all and if they have chest pressure it is usually accompanied with some of the other signs listed below.

Some women may feel extreme tiredness which could be mistaken as a sign of another illness.  They can have blackouts before the attack, maybe just some breathlessness, maybe swelling in their ankles or legs, nausea or fluttering heart beats.  During an attack women may also experience clamminess or sweating.  There could even be weakness or pain all over the body.

The odds of having a heart attack increase with:

• Smoking
• Post-menopausal status
• Elevated cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Family history
• Overweight
• Stress
• Little or no exercise

Women are most likely to have “silent” heart attacks than men.  Heart attacks and their aftermath are more deadly in women than men and about one quarter more women die within a year of having a heart attack.  This probably happens because women are older when they have a heart attack, and they don’t respond as well as men to the treatments usually prescribed during or after a heart attack.

So please, if you are experiencing, or have experienced, any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor before it is too late and you become the one in two that do not make it.

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