Heart Disease in Women

Accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion, more than 1 in 3 adults have some form of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease. The good news is that 80% of heart dis­ease and stroke can be pre­vent­ed. Heart attack signs in women can be vast­ly dif­fer­ent than in men and can be con­fused with less life-threat­en­ing situations.

Signs & Symp­toms Pre­ced­ing A Heart Attack in Women

1. Uncom­fort­able pres­sure, squeez­ing, full­ness or pain in the cen­ter of your chest. It lasts more than a few min­utes, or goes away and comes back.
2. Pain or dis­com­fort in one or both arms, the back, neck or jaw or stom­ach.
3. Short­ness of breath with or with­out chest dis­com­fort.
4. Oth­er signs such as break­ing out in a cold sweat, nau­sea or light-head­ed­ness.
5. As with men, the most com­mon heart attack symp­tom in women is chest pain or dis­com­fort. But women are some­what more like­ly than men to expe­ri­ence some of the oth­er com­mon symp­toms, par­tic­u­lar­ly short­ness of breath, nausea/​vomiting and back or jaw pain.

If you are expe­ri­enc­ing any of these symp­toms, don’t wait, call for help. Call 9−1−1 and get to a hos­pi­tal right away.

Wom­en’s Health and Heart Disease

Duly Health and Care has car­di­ol­o­gists in mul­ti­ple loca­tions across the west­ern sub­urbs. Vis­it the Car­di­ol­o­gy page to find a physi­cian near you.

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