How be Healthy: Women's Heart

Heart disease is a serious condition affecting millions of women around the globe. The troubling news is that most women say that it’s not a subject their doctor has ever brought up. The good news is that there are a lot of things you can do to reduce your risk of getting heart disease, make your heart healthier, and get treatment in time to save your life if you do have a heart problem or attack. Let’s take a look at some of the myths surrounding heart disease and women and what every woman can do to protect her heart and her life and be healthy.

Heart Myth: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women.
Heart Facts:

• Around 40,000 women each year die from breast cancer.
• Heart disease kills over 350,000 women each year.
• Heart disease kills more women than the next sixteen leading causes of death combined.
• A woman has a 4 percent chance of dying from breast cancer and a 33 percent chance of dying from heart disease.

Heart Myth: Heart disease is a man’s problem.
Heart Facts:

• Women are more likely than men to have a silent heart attack, which can be undetectable while damaging your heart.
• Most research on treating heart disease has been conducted on men, even though men’s and women’s hearts react differently.
• Women who are in the hospital for heart problems are twice as likely to die as men.

Heart Myth: Heart disease affects only women who are overweight
Heart Facts:

• It’s estimated that one in four women in America have some type of heart disease.
• Even women at a healthy weight can have high cholesterol or blood pressure and can suffer “silent” heart attacks that damage their hearts.

Heart Myth: Having heart disease means you will have a heart attack.
Heart Facts:

• Heart disease comes in many forms, including atherosclerosis (blocked arteries to the heart), stroke, arrhythmia, and congestive heart failure.
• Heart disease does not always result in a heart attack. By making changes to your healthstyle habits, you can often combat the effects of heart disease and have a long, full life.

Heart Myth: Most smokers die from lung cancer.
Heart Facts:

•  While lung cancer is, of course, a major cause for concern if you smoke, smoking actually kills more people through heart disease than through lung cancer.

Heart Myth: Most people who have a heart attack die.
Heart Facts:

•  Two-thirds of people who have heart attacks survive.
• Doctors estimate that 375,000 people die each year from heart attacks who might have been saved if they had received quick treatment.
• Chewing an aspirin (real aspirin, not Tylenol, Motrin, or Advil) right away if you are experiencing heart attack symptoms can save your life.

The most important thing to know about your heart health is that it’s primarily in your hands. The top nine risk factors for heart attacks are all things that are within your control. I’m not saying they’re all easy, but at least you can develop a plan to attack them (no pun intended) one by one to have the healthiest heart you can. Even if you inherited a condition or were born with a heart defect (about 300,000 women in the United States have a congenital heart condition), making changes to your healthstyle is the best way to keep it ticking loud and strong.




Source:  Health Matters 8 Steps That Can Save Your Life--and Your Family's Health

Posted in: Health, health tips