Women and Heart Health: What You Should Know

By RWV Intern, Joselyn Denise Yrayta

Women’s heart health is something that I am deeply passionate about, in part because of my own mother’s heart problems. My mother wasn’t aware of her own high risk of heart problems, but then again, many women in the United States are in the same position.

Because of my personal connection with the topic, I was quick to respond to an invitation to be an audience member for the upcoming PBS special, “3 Keys to Heart Health with Dr. Lori Mosca.” Dr. Lori Mosca is a Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and Director of Preventive Cardiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital . I don’t want to give you ALL the details, because the full special will air on PBS this November, but key facts about women and heart health that Dr. Mosca highlighted include these:

• Heart disease (and related complications) is the number one killer of women in the United States.

• Women aren’t aware of the dangers of heart disease, and how common it is.

• Women are more likely to call for an ambulance about a heart-attack that’s happening to someone else!

• African-American women are 35% more likely to die of heart disease than are Caucasian women, while Hispanic women face heart disease nearly 10 years earlier than Caucasian women. Pacific Islander women, long considered at low risk, count heart disease as their second leading cause of death (From National Coalition of Women with Heart Disease).

• There are heart-attack symptoms that are more common for women than they are for men, and some of these are:
  • Unusual fatigue
  • Sleep disturbance
  • Shortness of breath
  • Indigestion
  • Anxiety

In addition to the information that Dr. Mosca shared, we can look to a recent study done by the National Institute of Health to demonstrate the importance of monitoring heart health. Jean McSweeney, PhD, RN, Principal Investigator of that study, found that:

"Symptoms such as indigestion, sleep disturbances, or weakness in the arms, which many of us experience on a daily basis, were recognized by many women in the study as warning signals for AMI [Acute Myocardial Infarction, commonly referred to as a ‘heart attack’]. Because there was considerable variability in the frequency and severity of symptoms, we need to know at what point these symptoms help us predict a cardiac event."

This important research shows just how critical it is for women to pay attention to their heart health – the warning signs can be the difference between life and death. Help spread the word! Share this information with the women in your life and encourage them to monitor their heart health!

Two campaigns are encouraging women to pay attention to their heart health: The American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s The Heart Truth. Each of these campaigns has more information and resources for you to use and share.

For more information about heart disease and ways to prevent it, be sure to catch “3 Keys to Heart Health With Dr. Lori Mosca” on PBS this November.

Joselyn Denise Yrayta, a student at Hampshire College, is an intern this summer with the New York office of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need. She is supported by the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program.

Comments

[Erol]

Great Job on the blog Joselyn... I am glad you cam in the audience and I wish you the best in all your endeavors!!! Touch base with me in the future and I will update you on the show air date!

Best,
Erol Bal