By Dianne Gebhardt-French
SmartHealthToday
For young women, the symptoms of a heart attack can be as subtle as they are serious.
“Certainly if a woman gets typical crushing chest pain, breaks out in a severe sweat, can’t breathe; she’ll pretty much know that there’s something bad going on and she’ll call 911,” said Dr. Ned Mehlman.
“But sometimes they just don’t feel well,” explained the St. Elizabeth cardiologist. Women may feel dizzy or nauseous or as if they have indigestion. “I don’t think it’s a hypochondriac issue” or women worrying about crying wolf over nothing, said Mehlman.
It’s rather that they don’t want to bother anybody or the symptom is so vague, it could be something else.
“They think, ‘I’ll lie down for an hour. I’ll take a nap and I’ll feel better,’” said Mehlman.
While the overall rate of heart disease deaths is declining, the rate for women ages 34-54 has increased, according to the American Heart Association.
“In women, heart disease is too often a silent killer – nearly two-thirds of women who died suddenly had no previous symptoms,” reads a 2015 Heart Association report on heart disease and stroke statistics.
For women, chest pain may mean a heart attack but other signs include:
* Intermittent fullness or pressure in the center of the chest
* Pain in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach
* Shortness of breath
* Cold sweat, nausea or dizziness
Awareness is the solution. Mehlman says encouraging women to work closely with their primary care doctors to understand and control risk factors is crucial to efforts to reduce heart-related deaths.
A healthy lifestyle means eating properly, avoiding fast food, exercising and no smoking. It’s also important to work with your doctor and have regular screenings for blood pressure and cholesterol. Then carefully follow instructions on medications and for follow-up tests.
The Women Take Heart Health Event and Screening will be on Monday, November 9, at Dillard’s in Crestview Hills.
Four screenings are available: peripheral arterial disease (PAD), abdominal aortic aneurysm, carotid artery diseases/stroke and the cardiac age health risk assessment. One screening is $25, or $100 for all four. To register, click here or call (859) 301-WELL.
SmartHealthToday is a service of St. Elizabeth Healthcare.