It’s time the color red rises to the level of pink, when it comes to women’s health awareness. February is American Heart Month, filled with educational events and activities about heart disease and stroke, which happens to be the leading killer of women, and men, in the United States.
Heart disease and stroke cause 1 in 3 deaths among women each year, killing approximately one woman every 80 seconds. Among men, cardiovascular disease causes 1 in 4 deaths annually. Nearly 44 million American women are living with heart disease. Despite this, only 1 in 5 women are aware that heart disease is their greatest health risk, the American Heart Association reports.
But numbers can be numbing, when trying to raise awareness. It might make more of an impact to tell women: Heart disease kills more women (and men) than all types of cancer combined.
The good news about heart disease is that it can prevented by making healthy choices, which lowers the risk of the more-feared cancers as well. Risk factors for heart disease are the same for men and women: Smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, family history of heart disease, and obesity. Nearly 80 percent of all women have at least one risk factor for heart disease. But again, the encouraging aspect is that many of those factors can be modified through changes in diet and exercise.
While men and women face the same risks for heart disease, their symptoms can be very different, which can compound problems for women since they are less likely to suspect heart attack or stroke in the first place. So in addition to needing awareness about the risks of heart disease, women (and health care professionals) need continuing education about how to recognize heart disease symptoms so that they can get care in a timely manner.
For example, when having a heart attack, men tend to have more commonly recognized symptoms like crushing chest pain and associated shortness of breath, nausea, radiation of pain to neck or jaw. Women, in contrast, may have very atypical symptoms and some women have no symptoms at all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While women may have the same symptoms as men, it is more common for them to have more vague and non-specific symptoms such as feelings of dread, anxiety, back pain and flu-like symptoms.
Even when diagnosed, women with heart disease are under-treated and underserved, writes Dr. Kevin R. Campbell on FoxNews.com. Women are less likely to be treated with the most advanced and aggressive therapies, compared to men.
Education and awareness about cardiovascular disease should be a year-round goal. Every day is a good day to wear red, and learn about your heart, and become your own best health advocate.
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