is your heart happy?

Heart disease isn’t just a problem that affects men – it’s time for women to wise up, learn the signs and discover how to stay healthy too

106 discover the signs

of heart disease and how to stay healthy

We’re constantly reminded about our breast health and how to check for changes, but important as that is, what most of us don’t realise is that we’re more likely to die from a heart attack than we are from breast cancer. The statistics are staggering – 69,000 women have a heart attack in Britain each year, leading to 28,000 deaths (double the amount that die from breast cancer).

For decades, doctors and patients have thought of heart disease and heart attacks as something that predominantly affects overweight, middle-aged men. But now reports show that if they lead an unhealthy lifestyle, women’s risk of having a heart attack is significantly more elevated than men’s.

On the rise

Despite oestrogen being cardio protective, rates of heart disease in women have soared, and according to the British Heart Foundation fact sheet, one in 12 women dies from coronary heart disease.

When it comes to unhealthy lifestyles, women are catching up with men, says GP Dr Jeff Foster. While smoking rates may have gone down, alcohol consumption is still high. Meanwhile, obesity is leading to huge problems. Consequently, women are developing high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, putting them at serious risk of a heart attack.

What’s more, a study by Oxford University involving half a million people aged 40-69 has revealed that women are more likely to suffer as a result of their unhealthy habits than men. The risk of heart attack in women with Type 2 diabetes surges by 96%, whereas for men the threat only rises by 33%. Similarly, women who have stage 2 hypertension (severe high blood pressure) increase their chance of a coronary by 152%, compared with 71% for men, and for smokers, women’s risk of a heart attack is double that of men – 246% versus just 123%.

BUT WHY? Scientists writing in the British Medical Journal believe that despite the elevated risks, women are still receiving worse care than men. Women with diabetes, for example, are 15% less likely than men with the same condition to receive the recommended level of care. And British women are 50% more likely than men to have a heart attack initially misdiagnosed, as female symptoms are less well-known.

Bad publicity

But it’s not just the medical experts that are to blame. ‘Heart attacks just don’t receive enough publicity,’ explains Dr Foster. ‘We’re eating worse and exercising less, which is raising our LDL (bad) cholesterol and pushing up our blood pressure, which is all adding to the risk.’

Plus, women themselves still see heart disease as a typically male condition. And there’s even the idea that it’s not something women can develop. How wrong could they be?

Worryingly, death rates are rising too. Part of the problem is that male heart attack indicators, which are well documented, can differ from lesser-known female symptoms. ‘Women do not present in the same way as men,’ explains Dr Foster. ‘They don’t often have typical left-sided chest pain that “classic” heart attack patients get.’