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Do you know why women have more heart attacks than men? Watch this Mellanie True Hills video and learn the answer.
Mellanie True Hills:
Women have a variety of issues when it comes to having heart attacks. First of all, doctors don’t know that women have heart attacks, at least not before the age of 65. Many doctors don’t because that’s how they were trained in medical school.
They were trained that men have heart attacks; women might have heart attacks after the age of 65. So it can often be a shock to our doctors when we go in and say, “I am having these symptoms.” They don’t even think of heart attacks. So it’s a shock when we actually have a heart attack, especially when it happens in younger and younger women.
So for example, it happens not just in our 60s and 70s but in our 50s, 40s, 30s and even younger. So women tend to have heart attacks because our doctors are not always recognizing the symptoms and not getting us treated in time. In addition, women have, many women go into denial, and we are not recognizing our own symptoms and even if we do, we think they’re not serious.
So as a result, we say, “Oh, I need to get that done first,” or “I need to get that done first,” so we wait. We’re losing precious moments because time lost is heart lost if we have a heart attack. So it’s frightening. Women on average don’t make it to the hospitals as quickly as men do and as a result we lose more women to heart attacks than men.
In addition, we have learned just in the last couple of years that heart attacks are a different mechanism in women. Heart disease is different in women. So not only are we not recognizing the symptoms, we have subtle symptoms that are easily missed, but in addition to that, the mechanism may be different and as a result the test may need to be different.
What are the signs of a heart attack?
Not everyone has all of the warning signs of heart attack. And, sometimes these signs can go away and come back.
Symptoms of a heart attack include:
* Pain or discomfort in the center of the chest
* Pain or discomfort in other areas of the upper body, including the arms, back, neck, jaw, or stomach
* Other symptoms, such as shortness of breath (feeling like you can't get enough air), breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea (feeling sick to your stomach), or feeling faint or woozy
Some women have more vague symptoms such as:
* Unusual tiredness
* Trouble sleeping
* Problems breathing
* Indigestion (upset stomach)
* Anxiety (feeling uneasy or worried)
Bio:
Heart Survivor, Author, and Speaker Mellanie is a heart survivor and the author of A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life: The HEART Program for Health & Longevity. After having a brush with death in emergency heart surgery, Mellanie now uses her second chance to coach individuals in creating healthy lifestyles and organizations in creating healthy, productive workplaces.
Heart disease is the #1 killer, and stroke is #3. In the US each day, we lose nearly 3,000 men and women to heart disease and stroke. Forty per cent of us will get, and die from, heart disease or stroke. But it is preventable, if you know what to do.
Women have different heart symptoms than men, and they're typically very subtle, so for women, the first symptom is frequently a heart attack. Knowing those symptoms can save your life.
Mellanie's mission is to spread awareness of how to save your own life. She provides a message of hope and encouragement, sharing how to take control, decrease stress, and protect against heart disease. Audiences consistently say, You changed my life.
To further this mission, Mellanie is the founder and CEO of the American Foundation for Women's Health.
Mellanie also works with organizations that want healthy, productive workplaces to decrease stress and keep employees healthy, including how to leverage technology and culture in doing so.
View Mellanie True Hills' Videos:
https://www.empowher.com/heart
Visit Mellanie True Hills on her Web sites:
www.mellaniehills.com
www.stopafib.org