This disease kills more women than cancer, so why are you not aware of it?

They are fatal for both men and women, but heart disease is more associated with the male sex.

And the truth is far from that.

Prof. Ariel Rogin, Director of the Heart Unit at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, explains what causes heart attacks in women, what the symptoms are and whether it can be prevented in advance

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health

09/18/2022

Sunday, September 18, 2022, 10:51 Updated: 10:58

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Prof. Kobi Shaham explains what are the signs of a heart attack that should concern you and when it is important to get to the emergency room quickly (Wala system!)

Heart disease among men is a well-known and familiar thing.

More than once we witness both young and old men having a heart attack during their lives.

On the other hand, you hardly ever hear about women suffering from heart disease, especially women in their 40s and 50s.

According to statistics, 1 in 2 women suffer from heart disease, which places it as the leading cause of death among women.

Despite the alarming data, many women are unaware of the symptoms and sometimes do not associate them with any heart disease.

The lack of awareness of the symptoms of heart attacks among women exists not only among the women themselves but also among medical teams in community clinics and emergency rooms, which makes it difficult to provide proper treatment in real time.

"Until the age of 70, coronary heart disease is more common among men than women, mainly due to the natural hormonal activity of the woman. As long as the woman is menstruating regularly, the hormones estrogen and progesterone protect the woman against cardiovascular disease. However, from the moment the disease appears In women, the mortality rates are higher and the early complications after a myocardial infarction are more common than in men," explains Prof. Ariel Rogin, director of the heart department at the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center.

Heart disease is the number one cause of death among women in most industrialized countries.

A woman feels her heart (Photo: ShutterStock, Pearl PhotoPix)

More deadly than all types of cancer combined

According to the data, heart disease is the number one cause of death among women in most industrialized countries.

Heart disease causes 1 in 3 deaths among women each year, and is more deadly than all cancers combined.

It should be noted that cardiovascular diseases are not the domain of older women only.

There are women in their 40s, 50s and even younger who suffer from coronary heart disease.

Besides the worrying fact that the women themselves are not aware of the symptoms that may indicate heart disease, medical teams also often treat those symptoms differently by gender - which adds to the difficulty in identifying the problem and diagnosing it in real time.

Prof. Rogin explained that sometimes when there is a heart attack, the woman herself does not believe that it is an event that originates from the heart, and many times she attributes it to the digestive system.

When she arrives at the community clinic, the medical staff will not always think that it is a heart attack, and so is the lack of awareness in the emergency rooms, unfortunately.

The problem also appears in the hospitalization wards and even if someone has already arrived for catheterization, in light of the fact that the diameter of the heart arteries in women is usually smaller, there is less tendency to implant stents or in cases where they are referred for surgery - in women fewer bypasses are performed.

Therefore, over time, the effectiveness of invasive treatments among women is not as effective as among men.

Happily, in recent years there has been a decrease in mortality rates as a result of heart disease, both among men and among women, mainly in light of the improvement in medical treatment and, moreover, the increase in the general public's awareness of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and prevention, such as stopping smoking, consuming healthier food, and more.

However, the death rate among women from heart disease is higher than that of men.

Most likely, the change will come when the women are more aware of the symptoms and the warning signs and insist on receiving appropriate and adapted treatment even when they encounter mistrust.

The symptoms are completely different.

A man with a broken heart (Photo: ShutterStock, Creative Cat Studio)

Various and confusing symptoms

Among men there are clear symptoms that indicate a heart attack, i.e. pain in the center of the chest that presses or radiates to the left arm or lower jaw that is aggravated by exertion.

Many will describe the feeling "as if an elephant is sitting on my chest".

On the other hand, among women, often the symptoms are not necessarily expressed in typical angina but in more abstract symptoms, such as unusual fatigue, shortness of breath or inability to take a deep breath, paleness, cold sweat, inability to sleep, dizziness, fainting, nausea and vomiting or pain in the neck, upper back or upper abdomen.

Sometimes these symptoms can disappear and return again after a period of time.

"If you suffer from pain, your body is trying to tell you something. Finding the source of the pain and dealing with it is essential and necessary, not only to improve the quality of life, but also to prevent a potential health hazard. It is important to undergo a comprehensive examination with the relevant experts in order to rule out various diseases Prof. Rogin points out.

Women in their 40s and 50s are recommended to undergo an investigation and evaluation of all aspects of the woman's health, with an emphasis on the interaction between the medications to the extent taken, the effect of hormones and the unique symptoms.

Knowing the problems that affect women during the different stages of their lives and knowing the symptoms of heart problems can save lives.

If you suffer from risk factors that may lead to heart problems, it is recommended to consider screening tests, i.e. blood tests, echocardiogram, stress test and neck duplex.

And in particular, if you feel one or more of the symptoms mentioned for more than a few minutes and you don't know exactly what the cause is, it is recommended to go to the clinic or order an ambulance and go to the emergency room for a medical examination.

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• Heart Attack

• heart diseases

• women