Testing It Up

Any heart attack dramatization on TV and in the movies usually involves chest pain, with the character shown as clutching his or her chest. In reality, however, heart attacks are not always preceded by chest pains, as indicated in a new study.

A new large study found out that many patients who are taken to hospitals for heart attacks never experienced chest pain. As a result, they are not as likely to be given aggressive treatment.

The study, which involved 1.1 million people and was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, determined that the absence of chest pain associated with a heart attack may be especially risky for younger and middle-aged women, as 42 percent of women admitted to hospitals for a heart attack never experienced chest pain.

Women were also found to be more likely to succumb to a heart attack, with the mortality rate for women in the study determined to be nearly 15 percent, as opposed to only 10 percent for men.

Dr. John G. Canto, director of the chest pain center at Lakeland Regional Medical Center in Florida and one of the authors of the study, shared: “We think part of the reason is that women who are presenting with a heart attack might not have that classical presentation… so they may not be recognized as having a heart attack, and possibly some of these patients may present too late to receive lifesaving procedures.”

An interactive event that aims to educate women about heart disease will be held at The Kensington Garden Room in Galesburg, Illinois this month. The event, called Cardiac Chic, is hosted by the Healthy Woman program of Galesburg Cottage Hospital.

Cardiac Chic will serve as the only event of its kind in west-central Illinois. It is scheduled for 5:30 pm on February 16, and will offer complimentary health screenings and information, as well as vendor booths with various products. A screening of the movie “Just a Little Heart Attack,” directed by and featuring Emmy-nominated actress Elizabeth Banks, is scheduled to start at 6:30 pm at the Orpheum Theatre.

The movie is about an overworked and stressed out mom, played by Banks, who starts to experience symptoms of a heart attack one busy morning. According to Banks, the film is about “a super mom who takes care of everyone except herself and learns the lesson that she better look after herself, as well.”

After the screening of the film, Dr. Alar Sambandam, a board certified cardiologist at College Hospital, will discuss the signs and symptoms of heart attacks in women. There will be a gourmet dessert buffet after the awarding of door prizes.
Cardiac Chic is a Go Red For Women event; Go Red For Women is a national movement of the American Heart Association that spreads awareness about women’s risk for heart disease, as well as help them learn more about their risk for heart disease, and take the necessary steps to reduce their risk.

February 3 was National Wear Red Day, and for a moment America saw red as advocates made an effort to spread awareness about heart disease in women.

While heart disease is something that can afflict both men and women, it is the number one killer of women in America, with an estimated one in four women dying from it, based on information provided by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

The American Heart Association (AHA) said that more women die from heart disease than the next four causes of death combined, which makes it imperative to raise awareness about the disease – the primary objective of National Wear Red Day.

Heart disease, however, is a preventable condition; 80 percent of deaths due to heart disease in women can be prevented for as long as women eat right, exercise, and do not smoke.

In addition to leading a healthy lifestyle, women are also advised to watch out for heart attack symptoms, including uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of the chest which may be intermittent or lasts for more than a few minutes; pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach. Other signs of a heart attack may be shortness of breath, with or without chest discomfort, and breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.

The AHA shard further that women are more likely to feel some of the other symptoms of a heart attack, especially shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

The month of February has been called the month of hearts, but it is for more than just being the month when Valentine’s Day is celebrated. American Heart Month, observed for the entire month of February, serves as a way to spread awareness regarding heart diseases and its prevention among Americans. Congress paved the way for this celebration in 1963, when it required the President to proclaim February as “American Heart Month”.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention features information on cardiovascular diseases on its website, reiterating how heart disease is the leading cause of death among Americans. Information regarding the differences in heart attack symptoms in men and women is provided by Dr. James Beckerman, an invasive cardiologist practicing in Portland, Oregon, in a feature on WebMD.

While most people think that they are already familiar with the generic symptoms that are indicative of a heart attack, including chest discomfort and shortness of breath, doctors and patients are slowly finding out that there may be differences in the symptoms experienced by women versus men.

For instance, there was a study that revealed that half of women who experienced a heart attack did not feel any chest pain, a symptom that is very typical for a heart attack in men. Women may want to be wary of these symptoms which tend to appear before a heart attack and are deemed more common for women, according to Dr. Beckerman: unusual fatigue, difficulty in sleeping, shortness of breath, indigestion and anxiety.

We have mentioned in a couple of previous posts how women are more conscientious about their health than men; how they are more likely to eat healthy and lead healthy lifestyles and schedule trips to the doctor’s office when something is not quite right. However, in the case of heart attacks, this fact seems to  have been overridden by the fact that certain risk factors for heart disease – such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels – are reportedly not treated as aggressively in women as they are in men.

These suggestions were taken from the results of a study that was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. In a way, women’s attitudes towards health in general seem to have a positive effect in that in data taken in two 5-year time periods, there were more men who had heart attacks than women. However, only men posted improvement in heart attack rates; those of women increased. For the most part, cardiovascular risk factors in men seem to either have improved or simply remained stable.

Diabetes is one risk factor, though, that both men and women share in common and has shown an increase in occurrence in both genders; this is probably the result of the prevalence of obesity in society, based on the study.

The reason for the less aggressive treatment of heart disease risk factors in women may have stemmed from the traditional thought that hormonal influences in women who have not yet undergone menopause serve as a protective barrier against heart disease and stroke. What this basically means is that middle-aged women are seen as not as likely to be at risk for heart attacks and strokes.

But not anymore, and again, the most likely culprit that the research authors see is the increase in obesity. It looks like there will be a need to address the obesity issue alongside those of heart disease, as well as change the perspective regarding who belongs to the high risk group for heart attacks in order to post an improvement, at least in our opinion.

The study was conducted by Drs. Amytis Towfighi, MD and Ling Zheng, PhD of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and Dr. Bruce Ovbiagele, MD of the University of California at Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Health Screening