14 reasons to be glad you’re a man when you’re having a heart attack
I just finished reading a truly weird rant on another website written by a man decrying the ”sexism” of our society because all of our male doctors are now focused only on women’s heart disease – while apparently ignoring men completely.
It would surely be the fantasy dream of every woman heart attack survivor if this guy were actually telling the truth about all that attention women’s #1 killer is attracting. The frightening reality instead is that since 1984, more women than men have died each year from heart disease. In fact, the gap between men and women’s cardiac survival continues to widen.
In the interests of enlightening the unconscious among us about All Things Cardiac, I am happy to point out an asssortment of gender differences if you find yourself having a heart attack:
- 1. For women under the age of 50, heart attacks are twice as likely to be fatal as men’s.
- 2. Women are twice as likely as men to die within the first few weeks after suffering a heart attack, and 42% of women die within the first year following a heart attack compared to 24% of men.
- 3. Marital stress worsens the prognosis in women with heart disease – but not in men.
- 4. Men’s coronary artery plaque tends to distribute in clumps whereas women’s tends to distribute more evenly throughout artery walls. This results in women’s diagnostic tests frequently being misinterpreted as “normal”.
- 5. Women wait longer than men to go to a hospital Emergency Department when having a heart attack, and physicians are slower to recognize the presence of heart attacks in women because ”typical” patterns of chest pain and EKG changes are less frequently present.
How women can have heart attacks without having any blocked arteries
Turns out that the kind of heart attack that I had (caused by a 99% blockage in the big left anterior descending coronary artery) – the so-called widowmaker heart attack - may actually be relatively uncommon in women. You might guess that fact by its nickname.
While cardiologists warn that heart disease can’t be divided into male and female forms, there are some surprising differences. Cardiologist Dr. Amir Lerman at the world famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told the Los Angeles Times recently:
“When it comes to acute heart attacks and sudden death from cardiac arrest, women have these kinds of events much more often without any obstructions in their coronary arteries.”
Instead, it appears that a significant portion of women suffer from another form of heart disease altogether, one called coronary microvascular disease. It affects not the superhighway coronary arteries but rather the smaller arteries, called microvessels. These tiny arteries deliver blood directly to the heart muscle.
Ironically, I can now boast both diagnoses for the price of one - the widowmaker heart attack caused by a fully occluded coronary artery back in 2008, and now, after two years of puzzling, ongoing cardiac symptoms - like chest pain, shortness of breath, and crushing fatigue - a second diagnosis of Cardiac Syndrome X caused by coronary microvascular disease. (more…)
Gender differences in heart attack treatment contribute to women’s higher death rates
An alarming study undertaken in France highlighted serious gender differences in cardiac treatment of men and women. These shocking differences contributed to a higher death rate among women suffering a heart attack.
The French study looked at more than 3,000 patients, of whom 32% were women. These people had been treated for heart attacks over a two-year period between 2006 and 2007.
Lead author Dr. Francois Schiele, Cardiology Chief at the University Hospital in Besancon, France, presented the results of the research at the American College of Cardiology’s 59th Annual Scientific Session in Atlanta last month. By examining the raw data, Dr. Schiele’s team found that, on average, the women studied:
- were nine years older than their male counterparts
- were in poorer health
- had been less effectively treated for heart attack
- were almost twice as likely as men to die as a result, whether in the hospital or at home during the month following their heart attack. (more…)
“Take two aspirins and Tweet me in the morning!”
You woke up feeling sick today. Your throat is scratchy, your head is imploding, and you just don’t think you can even leave your bed. You might have the flu. What do you do?
If you live in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, you stagger over to your computer and log in to your doctor’s office website at Hello Health to schedule an online Instant Messaging visit. Very soon, during that IM chat, your regular doctor asks some questions and confirms that it’s a virus. She tells you there’s nothing to worry about just yet, to drink plenty of fluids, and take Tylenol™ for the fever. Oh, and she’ll contact you tomorrow.
Feeling better now? In the olden days before the Hello Health concept, the traditional time spent dragging your sorry flu-addled self out of bed and all the way downtown to your doctor’s office, including two aching and feverish hours spent shivering in the waiting room infecting other patients, would have been about four hours of your life that you’d never get back.
But time spent with your Hello Health doctor’s visit? Less than one hour, without even brushing your teeth, changing out of your sweaty jammies, or leaving home.
Indeed, across our health care system, from large hospital networks to patient support groups, new media tools like blogs, IM platforms, video chat, and social networks like Twitter and Facebook are re-engineering the way doctors and patients interact. (more…)
WomenHeart: “Still gender disparities in treating women’s heart attacks”
February is Heart Month! Watch this compelling video for shocking updates on how women’s heart attack symptoms are often not taken seriously by medical professionals. Please help to increase awareness of women’s heart disease – our #1 killer - by spreading the word to as many women as possible. For more information, visit WomenHeart: The National Coalition For Women With Heart Disease.
