Heart Disease and Women

HEART DISEASE AND WOMEN

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of women over age 25. It kills nearly twice as many women in the United States than all types of cancer, including breast cancer (Taylor, 2004). "While it's true that 40,000 women die of breast cancer each year, 250,000 will die of a heart attack" (Legato & Colman, 1991, p. xvi). African-American women are at greater risk for heart disease than Caucasian women. In fact, the death rate from heart disease is 35 percent higher among African-American women than among their white counterparts (MedStar Health, 2011). Why? The medical community has no easy answers. Heart disease is preventable if you understand and know what the disease is, the warning symptoms, risk factors, and prevention steps that you can take to help you deter this chronic illness.

"Heart disease is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart, one such disease is cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is any of a number of specific diseases that affect the heart itself and/or the blood vessel system, especially the veins and arteries leading to and from the heart. Research on disease dimorphism suggests that women who suffer with cardiovascular disease usually suffer from forms that affect the blood vessels" (Wikipedia, 2011).

Warning symptoms of heart disease include: chest pain alone or associated with pain in the arm, neck or jaw; nausea; shortness of breath on exertion or when lying down; fatigue on exertion or unusual fatigue; dizziness or fainting; ankle swelling; sensation of missed heart beats or rapid heart beats (palpitations); and sleep disturbances (Taylor, 2004, p. 24).

The conditions that put women at risk for heart disease are: high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, overweight or obesity, tobacco use, menopause, age, and physical inactivity. If a woman has any of these conditions she is at risk for heart disease. The good news is that many of these risk factors can be changed, so risk is decreased (Lohe, 2003).

The preventative changes that women can take to deter and manage cardiovascular disease are: quit smoking and avoid environmental smoke, exercise regularly, lose weight if you are overweight, eat a heart-healthy, low-fat diet, get regular checks of blood sugar and treatment if diabetes is present, make sure blood pressure is checked regularly and controlled if high, make sure cholesterol is checked and controlled if high, and manage stress (Taylor, 2004, p. 34). It's impossible to keep stress out of our lives, but we can learn how to live with it and not be broken by it. One benefit of exercise is that it provides stress relief.

"Besides exercise, another way to reduce stress is through spiritual practice, such as going to church or mediating. Often the