In Feb 2006, researchers reported that many women suffer
from a fundamentally different heart disease from men and is easily missed
from standard tests. Moreover, women do not seek treatment as early as men,
and women's hearts are smaller and their blood vessels are more easily
damaged. Another possible reason is that the disease could manifest itself
differently. As a result, women are less likely to survive heart attacks than
men. Many women are still unaware that heart disease and stroke have emerged
as the top killers of women worldwide.
The researchers found that for some women, instead of developing obvious
blockages in the arteries supplying blood to the heart, plaque are accumulated
more evenly inside the major arteries and in smaller blood vessels. In other
cases, their arteries fail to expand properly or go into spasm, often at times
of physical or emotional stress. These abnormalities are very common for
younger women and these can be dangerous because they could trigger
life-threatening heart attacks.
Instead of the classic crushing chest pain, sweating and shortness of breath,
they often complain of vague symptoms such as fatigue, an upset in stomach, or
pain in the jaw or shoulders. This certainly explain why some women suddenly
have heart attacks even though their arteries look clear and in some cases,
the doctors even send them home without treatment or refer them to
psychiatrists. Even if they do get medical treatment, these women may not
benefit from the standard drugs or therapies such as bypass surgery and
angioplasty to reopen the clogged arteries. In many cases, these women whose
arteries looked clear in normal tests have a significantly higher risk of
having a heart attack or dying within four or five years. The abnormalities
could be due to the fact that hormonal or genetic differences change how their
arteries react. In America, there are as many as three million women may
suffer from these conditions.
Despite the new findings, many women do have the same kind of heart disease as
men, and they do benefit from the same preventative measures and treatments
that help men: a healthy diet and weight; regular exercise; and a lower blood
pressure and cholesterol level. It is still unclear how best doctors can
tackle such conditions, but the new findings do provide important
understanding of a major health problem, and it also alerts both women and
their doctors about the alternative manifestations of the disease.
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