Stressed younger women at risk of heart attacks

HEALTH EDITOR MORE than 1,000 people a year, many young women, may be falling victim to stress-related heart attacks, new research suggests.

Cardiologists found women were most at risk from the condition, which has been linked to emotional stress caused by events such as a family bereavement as well as the exertion of extreme exercise, pregnancy or labour.

While the average age of victims was found to be 52 – compared to 66 for other heart attack sufferers – about 30 per cent of cases involved women who were nearing the end of a pregnancy or had recently given birth.

The research, carried out at Aston Medical School, Aston University in Birmingham, and the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, is the first major study to establish the incidence of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD).