This post is dedicated to my mother, Dorothy Madeline Northcott, one of the strongest and kindest women I knew. She passed away because her signs of a heart attack were missed by her primary care physician in spite of the fact that she went to his office 3 times the week she ended up having a massive heart attack with shoulder pain. Women often do not have the same typical signs of an impending heart attack that are seen in men. She had many risk factors such as Diabetes type 2, Hypertension and the fact that she was overweight and led a sedentary lifestyle. Yet, with all of these risk factors, she was never given a stress test or an electrocardiogram. She passed away in April of 2001.
Medical technology has come a long way since then, but women must still be aware of the signs and symptoms of an impending heart attack in order to catch it early. In 2002, the AHA began to seriously consider a more comprehensive and strategic approach to the challenge of heart disease in women. In February 2004, the AHA launched Go Red For Women®—a strategic, integrated approach that paired science with awareness building (Brown, 2015).
There is now an online assessment tool to assess your risk factors. It can be found at this link:
Symptoms that women might experience may include shortness of breath with or without chest pain, extreme fatigue – feeling tired like you have the flu, pain in the upper back, shoulders, arms, neck, or jaw, feeling lightheaded, nausea or breaking out in a cold sweat, pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen that comes and goes, or feelings of acid reflux. Feelings of impending doom is also a symptom.
I remember in the year before my Mom passed away how she became adamant that all of us put our names beside items she had in her house that we wanted to have after she died. She also would fall asleep while sitting in church or in the middle of a conversation. I remember one time she was not feeling well so I helped her go out to our car in the parking lot of one of my boy’s football games to sit until the game was over. She was so embarrassed that she was sick in the car because she could not figure out how to undo the safety lock. Looking back now, I wish I had known all of these things to look for so I could have gotten her in for a cardiovascular screening before she had her heart attack. We always thought our Father would pass away first because he had had 2 open heart surgeries, but he ended up living to be almost 90. We thought our Mom would be here forever.
Although Cardiovascular disease is the # 1 killer of women in the United States, the symptoms are often ignored because women are scared to acknowledge them and tend to put their loved one’s needs before their own.
These are changes to lifestyle that the AHA recommends to lower the risk for Cardiovascular Disease, CVD, in women:
- Avoid smoking cigarettes or breathing second-hand smoke.
- Try to get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise like walking or 75 minutes a week of more intense exercise.
- Change your diet to include more servings of fruits, vegetables, and fiber. Try to add healthy fish to your diet two times a week and try to limit saturated fats, trans-fats, salt, and sugar.
- Try to limit alcohol to one drink a day.
- Keep your weight at a healthy level or see your primary care physician about weight loss strategies.
- Depression also is a risk factor for CVD so if you think you might have symptoms of depression, see your primary care physician for a screening.
- Try to keep blood pressure at optimal levels – less than 120/80 mmHg
- Keep cholesterol at a healthy level.
- If you have diabetes, work on keeping your blood glucose levels under control with diet and exercise, or with medications if necessary.
- Use aspirin therapy only if your physician recommends it. The latest guidelines have changed.
- Get screened for CVD if you have 3 or more of these risk factors: diabetes, smoking, hypertension, high LDL cholesterol, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, a strong family history of heart disease, and age above 60. If you are over 50 and you have two or more risk factors, you should be screened for heart disease (Etingin, 2015).
- Screening tests might include a stress test, an electrocardiogram, and a CT scan. Your physical exam should include the scheduling of a follow-up appointment to go over results.
Take care of yourself so that you can live a long, healthy, and active life and be there for your loved ones!
REFERENCES
Brown, N. (2015). How the American Heart Association Helped Change Women’s Heart Health. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality & Outcomes, 8, S60
Etingin, O. R. (2017). Screening for heart disease. (cover story). Women’s Health Advisor, 21(10), 1–2.
Heart-Health Risk Assessments from the American Heart Association. (2019). Retrieved October 10, 2019, from https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/consumer-healthcare/what-is- cardiovascular-disease/heart-health-risk-assessments-from-the-american-heart- association.
Stahl, R. (2015). The American Heart Association’s Guidelines for Women. Health Library: Evidence-Based Information. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost- com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nup&AN=2009858 317&site=eds-live&scope=site