By: Jean Johnson for Heart1She was driving a school bus full of children home when a car swerved into her lane. The wayward vehicle narrowly missed the yellow bus, but sent the school bus driver’s chest into a cramped knot.
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Fast facts from the American Heart Association:
38 percent of women compared with 25 percent of men will die within one year after a heart attack
Stroke is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability; an estimated 15 to 30 percent of stroke survivors are permanently disabled
Misperceptions still exist that CVD is not a real problem for women
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Helen – as she is called in “The Woman’s Heart Book,” by Fredric J. Pahskow, M.D., and Charlotte Libov – knew her blood pressure and cholesterol had been creeping back up, but she hadn’t smoked in years so she was feeling fairly confident about her health. Plus, the pain seemed to go as quickly as it had come. Oh, but for the benefit of hindsight… First she felt “gassy” after lunch, a feeling that instead of settling down, worsened. By dinnertime Helen reported that “I was beginning to feel pain creeping up into my neck and jaw,” discomfort that would not be relieved by resting a while on her bed. Finally, Helen acquiesced to her children’s insistent demands, and an ambulance appeared to take her to the emergency room. Under the glaring lights of the clinical setting, a physician Helen had never met informed her she’d had a heart attack.
Raising Awareness
Charlotte Libov, veteran journalist and speaker whose work has appeared in the New York Times “turned to health writing after undergoing open-heart surgery for her own life-threatening heart problem. Now an award-winning medical writer, Charlotte has authored and co-authored several books.”
Libov also founded the National Women’s Heart Health Day, the February event focused on female cardiac wellness. The label for the day has morphed as things do, and since 2003 in an effort to attract wider attention organizers have repackaged the awareness event as National Wear Red Day – which this year is planned for February 3.
“National Wear Red Day has its own dress code. On this day, you're free to Go Red in your own fashion. Wear your favorite red clothes or accessory – a red blouse, red lipstick, a red dress lapel pin (the symbol of women's heart health) – carry a fabulous red handbag or sport a red tie and red socks... and show some heart for heart disease prevention,” the American Heart Association enthused. “Get involved. Go Red For Women. It's a simple, powerful way to improve women's heart health.”
Simple and powerful. Wear red on February 3 to support the cause.
Portland, Oregon naturopath Loch Chandler, N.D., L.Ac. agrees. “I think it's helpful that the American Heart Association is bringing more awareness to this widespread health condition. A person's health often comes down to awareness and education; once people become more aware and educated of alternatives different choices, those more in line with health, can be made.”
“With heart disease lifestyle is a huge component of causation and cure. Simple things such as eating whole foods, getting enough fruits and vegetables, and exercise go a long way in being good for your heart” Chandler said. “The same lifestyle choices that are good for the heart are also helpful for other conditions such as cancer and diabetes. Oftentimes, the solution is more simple than complex, and it comes down to choices.”
Simple and powerful: Eat whole foods, enough fruits and vegetables, and get exercise.
Why All the Fuss?
Women have a long history of not getting their heart disease concerns taken seriously. Research, especially in the 1940s and 1950s, focused on males. Consequently there are numerous stories of how women presented their physicians with symptoms of heart disease but were diagnosed with indigestion, had their hands patted benevolently, and were sent home.
One outgrowth of the feminist movement, though, was more attention to women’s healthcare needs. As female physicians graduated from medical schools and began to take their places in the ranks of professional physicians, they grew interested in problems related to their gender.
By the 1990s studies began to emerge showing that “men were twice as likely as women to receive state-of-the-art cardiac treatment,” wrote Charlotte Libov for a Houghton Mifflin Reader’s companion for History. Odd – the lack of attention – since Libov also observes that as early as 1908 more women were dying of heart disease than they were from childbirth.
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Inform yourself: Read more about heart disease, women and healthcare:
A New Prescription for Women's Health: Getting the Best Medical Care in a Man's World (New York: Viking Penguin, 1995) by Bernadine Healy M.D.
Outrageous Practices: The Alarming Truth About How Medicine Mistreats Women (New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1994) by ; Leslie Laurence and Beth Weinhouse.
The Woman's Heart Book: The Complete Guide to Keeping a Healthy Heart and What to Do If Things Go Wrong (New York: Plume, 1994) by Fredric J. Pashkow M.D. and Charlotte Libov.
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Libov lists three reasons for this sweeping and enduring oversight that so sadly short-changed women. “First, the vast majority of medical research was performed using men.
“Second, early results of the Framingham Heart Study, which included women and shaped many of society's views on heart disease, were misinterpreted. Initially, this study looked at middle-aged people and found heart disease common in men but not women. As the years passed and the participants aged, more women did become ill, but the earlier results had already shaped medical opinion.
“Third, women tend to be stricken later in life, when they are more socially isolated, less economically visible, and, as a group, easier for society to ignore. The result? Too often women were misdiagnosed, their cardiac symptoms ascribed to ‘nerves’ or ‘hysteria,’ sometimes with tragic results.”
The Statistics
According to a study published by the American Heart Association in 2000, “there has been a reversal in the perception that cancer is a more frequent cause of death than heart disease among women.” The report concludes, however, that “despite this trend, only half of women are aware that heart disease is their leading cause of death, and awareness among ethnic minorities at greatest risk lags behind whites.” This is part of the reason for the AHA’s sponsorship of National Wear Red Day – nothing like a little fun to get more of the crowd on board.
According to the AHA, nearly 40 percent of all female deaths in American occur from cardiovascular disease (CVD). “CVD is a particularly important problem among minority women. The death rate due to CVD is substantially higher in black women than in white women.”
In 2002, the most recent year for which AHA statistics are available, “coronary heart disease claimed the lives of 241,622 females compared with 41,514 lives from breast cancer and 67,542 from lung cancer.
Warning Signs
Some heart attacks are sudden and intense, but most start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. More, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under the National Institutes of Health women respond differently to typical warning signs than men do – females are less likely to think they are having a heart attack and more likely to delay seeking treatment.
The NHLBI underscores that "If you're a woman, you may not believe you're as vulnerable to a heart attack as men – but you are. Women account for nearly half of all heart attack deaths. Heart disease is the number one killer of both women and men.”
The NHLBI also reiterates one of Libov’s points: Women are generally 10 years older than men when they suffer problems since estrogen prior to menopause is thought to protect the heart to various degrees.
According to the NHLBI, women experience pain or discomfort in the center of the chest just like men do. The pain or discomfort can also be in the arms, back, neck, jaw, and stomach. What often differentiates female symptoms, though, is shortness of breath, breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, or light-headedness. To that Libov adds that women often experience a feeling of impending doom as well.
The Good Old Cardio Workout
It’s helpful to think of our hearts as miraculous work horses the size of our fists. Laying two fingers on our wrists and picking up the steady beat of a pulse brings home the idea that there truly is an amazing thing called a heart beating away in our chest around the clock.
The heart is able to orchestrate a symphony of life for each of us precisely because it is essentially a muscular organ.
“I know I really hate it when it’s time for my cardio,” said Lynn Paul. “But just this morning I dragged myself onto my treadmill and within about six minutes I remembered how good it feels to get the blood pumping like that. Really exhilarating.”
Paul says those first six to 10 minutes can be a real slog, but then it’s smooth sailing. “Probably because I put some music on,” Paul added. “I walk to the rhythm and even trot a little sometimes. Anything I feel like, really, since no one’s watching. Anything to help my heart do its thing since it really is one of my most prized possessions.”
Prized possession? Cross our hearts and hope to live? National Wear Red Day?
Save money on packaged junk food and start slicing and dicing fruits and veggies that don’t clog your system. Save the white flour for the paste pot and go for the whole grains. Dump the smokes and get the blood pumping with a good old cardio.
It’s all within reach, ladies. Isn’t it?
