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Heart Disease Often Overlooked As Killer of Women

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 March 2005, 18:00 CST

* A public-awareness campaign finds particular relevance in Rhode Island this week, as Governor Carcieri's wife, Suzanne, recovers from coronary bypass surgery.

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PROVIDENCE - Only 13 percent of women view heart disease as a threat to them, according to the American Heart Association. The longstanding perception remains that cardiovascular disease is more a man's issue than a woman's.

But the reality is that cardiovascular disease, including strokes, is the leading killer of American women, taking nearly a half-million lives a year -- more than all forms of cancer combined. Heart disease will account for 1 in every 2.5 deaths in women this year, compared with 1 in 30 from breast cancer.

The heart association calls heart disease and stroke Public Enemy No. 1 for women. Its Go Red for Women public-awareness campaign finds particular relevance in Rhode Island this week, as Governor Carcieri's wife Suzanne, 62, recovers from coronary bypass surgery at Rhode Island Hospital.

Cardiovascular disease is the number-one killer of men, too.

But more women than men died of cardiovascular disease in 2002, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 493,623 women, compared with 433,825 men.

How did the public view of women's risk get so skewed?

Dr. Barbara Roberts, director of the Women's Cardiac Center at Miriam Hospital, offers several explanations. One is that, for reasons still unknown, men and women display different symptoms when having heart attacks.

Men typically suffer from chest pain. Women may, too, but less frequently, says Roberts.

"They are more likely than men to present with just shortness of breath," she says. "Women are more likely to have so-called silent heart attacks -- that is, heart attacks without chest pain. Don't ask me why, because we don't know."

Other typical women's symptoms include what Roberts calls "profound weakness" and "unusual fatigue."

That can be disastrous when a woman suffering a heart attack reaches the hospital. According to Roberts, who cited an article from the New England Journal of Medicine, women under age 50 who were hospitalized with heart attacks were twice as likely to die there as men in the same group (6.1 percent of women; 2.9 percent of men).

Roberts attributes that, in part, to a traditional bias, now changing, in medical teaching. "Cardiac disease was always taught from a male perspective," says Roberts. So when a woman arrives in the emergency room, she says, "there's a delay in diagnosing and treating because they're having symptoms that the doctors just don't attribute to the heart."

Roberts also asserts that women and cardiovascular disease has been overshadowed by the successful public-awareness campaign for breast cancer -- including heavily promoted events such as this May's Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

"The breast-cancer people have done a good job of publicizing the dangers of breast cancer," says Roberts. "They certainly had more attention paid to them in the media until recently."

The heart association Web site, www.americanheart.org, says a woman is at risk for cardiovascular disease if she:

B Smokes, or is exposed to secondhand smoke.

"Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death in the United States. If you smoke cigarettes (or cigars), you have a higher risk of illness and death from heart attack, stroke and other diseases," the site says.

B Has high cholesterol or blood pressure.

B Does not exercize regularly.

B Is overweight.

B Has diabetes.

B Lives with excessive stress.

B Drinks too much.

Roberts gave this advice for women wanting to lower their risk of heart attack and stroke:

"Eighty-three percent of cardiovascular disease is preventable. The things we need to do are: stop smoking and avoid secondhand smoke, maintain a normal body weight, and get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day.

"Eat a heart-healthy diet, which is one that is rich in colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes; and low in meat, low in saturated fat. Olive oil should be your main source of fat calories. Avoid trans fats, which are those partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

"You need to have your blood pressure checked on a regular basis and treated if it's high. You need to know your cholesterol levels, and that should be treated if it's high, and you need to know you blood-sugar level because diabetes is a very potent risk factor for hardening of the arteries."

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* RECOVERING:

A day after her quadruple bypass surgery, Rhode Island First Lady Suzanne Carcieri sits up and talks with family. A14

PHOTO

Source: Providence Journal

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