Heart disease today has become a threatening ailment globally. Both men and women are affected by heart disease. But the risk for women remains under estimated by doctors and women themselves. However, the disease kills more than 8.5 million women worldwide.
Women become vulnerable to heart disease 10 years later in their lives than men. After menopause, women often invite problems such as hypertension, diabetes, hyper-lipidemia, central obesity and other metabolic syndrome.
Obesity in women often plays a major role in increasing the level of blood cholesterol level. Complicating matters further in the fact that women have atypical heart attack symptoms. Instead of symptoms such as burning sensation, tightness or pain in the chest – women experience breathlessness, weakness and unusual fatigue, cold sweat giddiness or neck and shoulder pain. Women often don’t associate these symptoms with the heart disease, but they really suffer in the end.
Well, the good news for all is that awareness is increasing everywhere and there is less gender bias seen. All we need is to be aware of the symptoms mentioned above. Women who smoke have a family history of a parent or sibling having heart disease, overweight, high blood sugar – they need to be more cautious.
