A Balanced Heart Is A Healthy Heart
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By Team Adesso | Posted Dec 12, 2024
A woman dies about once every minute from heart disease. Though most women aren’t aware of it, cardiovascular disease is the number 1 killer of women, causing 1 in 3 deaths each year. Despite this fact, only about half (44%) of women recognize that heart disease is their number 1 killer.
Are you living from the heart? Find out. Take our brief quiz to get your own #LiveFromTheHeart tip sheet.
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Recently, heart disease rates have started to rise for women ages 35-54 – an age when most women aren’t even thinking about heart disease yet. Surveys have shown that women who were younger, African American women, Hispanic, and Asian women compared to white women had lower awareness of heart disease being her greatest health threat.
In 2019, researchers asked women with high blood pressure about their awareness of heart disease being her greatest health threat. In this high risk group, these women were 30% less aware. Among females 20 years and older, nearly 45% are living with some form of cardiovascular disease and less than 50% of women entering pregnancy in the United States have good heart health. By the age of 60, half of us will have heart disease. For women that have heart disease, the process didn’t start on the day of the heart attack. It started years or decades before.
It wasn’t until 1993 that the government began requiring 50% of any government funded study to be women. To date, only privately funded studies only include women 23% of the time and 38% of participants in clinical cardiovascular trials are women. Female researchers are also greatly underrepresented in the field (only about a quarter of STEM jobs are women).
It’s important to understand how heart disease affects women versus men so that you can recognize symptoms that affect you.
With men, cholesterol plaque buildup happens in the largest arteries that supply blood to the heart, and is usually local. With women, plaque build up tends to happen throughout the arteries rather than in one place. Women are more likely to develop this buildup in the heart’s smallest blood vessels, known as the microvasculature. For these reasons traditional testing often misses heart disease in women.
A heart attack does not always look or feel the same in women compared to men. Men typically present to healthcare providers with chest pressure and when they have a heart attack it’s the typical “elephant standing on the chest.” Women also experience chest pressure sometimes, but often their symptoms can be more subtle.
Oftentimes heart disease cannot be easily diagnosed on a typical EKG. Other tests will help better determine if you have the beginnings of heart disease, need further testing or are at risk.
Echocardiogram – If there are any abnormalities on your EKG, symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath or chest pain, or you have signs from a physical exam such as a heart murmur, an echocardiogram can help take a look at what’s happening.
Carotid Doppler – Assesses the carotid arteries to evaluate for thickness or for the development of plaque.
CPET – Measures your overall cardiac vitality. It measures the cardiac and lung function and can determine the health of the coronary arteries and heart function.
Coronary Artery Calcium Score – A CT scan of the heart, without dye or contrast, This screening test picks up calcium in the arteries, which is associated with hardened plaque.
The more you take the power of a heart healthy life into your own hands, the healthier you will be. Now is a good time to do a personal check-in based on the information above. If anything is concerning, then take this information to your provider and start getting the tests you need.
Are there any symptoms we’ve mentioned that you need to get checked out? Write them down and take them with you to your appointment.
If you’re experiencing any of the following symptoms on a regular basis, please schedule a visit with your doctor as soon as possible.
If you’re experiencing a combination symptoms from this list, call 911 immediately:
And, possible symptoms of a stroke:
