heart disease, women…

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heart, section, the middle, heart, acute mi, heart attack ", most people imagine a pudgy, middle-aged man drenched in sweat, clutching his chest, ask a woman what she fears most, chances, good she'll reply "breast cancer", few patients, consider cardiovascular disease, cvd, a "woman's disease", in fact, heart disease kills more women each year than the next 14 causes, death combined, approximately 250,000 american women, die, a heart attack this year, yet only a handful of women believe that heart attack, stroke, greatest health threat, misleading notion that heart disease is not a real problem, women, blamed in part on medical research, very long time, heart disease studies have focused primarily on men, under way, doctors still fail to recognize the warning signs displayed by female patients, early heart signs, a study funded by the national institute of nursing research found that women experience undiagnosed warning signs weeks, having a heart attack, "we're finding, on average, most women experience warning signs 4 to 6 months, prior to heart attack", says study investigator jean mcsweeney, a professor, arkansas, medical sciences, obtain her results, mcsweeney's team interviewed more than 600 female heart attack survivors at medical centers, hospitals in arkansas, ohio, north carolina, significant differences exist, in the symptoms displayed by women, men, men typically experience the "classic" heart attack signs, tightness, in the chest, arm pain, shortness of breath, women's symptoms, nausea, an overwhelming fatigue, dizziness, strikingly different, chalked up to stress, "women started telling me how they had a hard time getting physicians to listen to them, early warning symptoms", says mcsweeney, unusual fatigue, trouble sleeping, shortness of breath, indigestion, anxiety were the top 5 symptoms reported by both black, white women, in the study, black women had more intense episodes, reported them more often, "that surprised us, we plan to look into it", says mcsweeney, "we, black women have more co-existing conditions, obesity, diabetes, could increase likelihood of having heart disease", act in time, recognizing, treating a heart attack right away dramatically improves a patient's chance, survival, typical american, waits 2 hours, calling, "time is heart muscle", says nieca goldberg-smith chief, the women's heart program at lenox hill hospital in new york, author of women, not small men, life-saving strategies, preventing, healing heart disease in women, "if get, hospital, a heart attack, we, administer aggressive clot-busting treatments", drugs that dissolve coronary blood clots, a heart attack, reduce the death rate in both men, women, women have a higher risk of stroke, therapy, unfortunately, statistics show that a woman, in the midst of having a heart attack receives clot-busting therapy much later than a man would, "women coming, hospital, heart attack have a higher death rate, higher risk of complications, a premenopausal woman having a heart attack has twice the death rate of a similarly aged man", says goldberg, know the warning signs, always call 911, 5 minutes, the onset of symptoms, advises james atkins-smith program director of emergency medicine education at ut southwestern allied health sciences school, by acting quickly, a heart attack victim is less likely to experience cardiac arrest, heart stops beating, prevention tied to belief, no denying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, preventing a disease means believing, at risk, many women fail, "women absolutely need to, become more aware of risk, heart disease", goldberg says, "whenever a woman comes, me after a heart attack, i always ask, they last felt well, it was several months, a year, the attack", women, advised to take charge of health by working, doctor to address risk factors, keep tabs on cholesterol levels, blood pressure, lifestyle, according, american heart association, low blood levels of "good" cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, hdl, a stronger predictor of heart disease death in women than in men, a major study showed that post-menopausal women taking hormone replacement therapy have an increased risk of heart attack, death by coronary artery disease, "heart disease, leading women's health care issue", says goldberg, "if symptoms aren't taken seriously, seek a second opinion", women & heart disease, source, american heart association, cardiovascular disease, cvd, ranks first among all disease categories in hospital discharges, women, than 43% of all female deaths, in the us, most developed countries, due to cvd, in 1997, cvd killed, twice, many women, all forms of cancer combined, women than men, die, the first year after a heart attack, 8% of women in america believe cvd is greatest health threat.