The truth about women and heart disease
Filed under: Women Heart Health
Although breast cancer seems to be getting a lot more press lately, the biggest threat to women's health today is actually heart disease. And although men are more often thought of when picturing a heart attack victim, the truth is women are actually more likely to both have heart disease and they're more likely to die from a heart attack in the weeks immediately following than men are. The Mayo Clinic has a handy quiz for women regarding the truth on a variety of health topics, heart disease and breast cancer included, and it's interesting to read the explanations after you take it because some of the answers are surprising!
Taking care of women's hearts
Filed under: Heart Centers Online, Research, Women Heart Health
As you may know, The Cardio Blog is being retired today. It's been an honor to write for this blog, and I hope that the information we brought to you was useful and informative. Since this will be my last post for The Cardio Blog, I thought I'd write about a topic that is near and dear to my heart (pun, lamely, intended): women's heart health. We've seen it in the headlines again and again -- women, and often their doctors, don't always prioritize their health, and this seems to be especially an issue when it comes to heart health. But the fact is that heart disease is public enemy number one for women, and we all need to better understand and deal with our risk factors.
So I'll leave you with this post from Her Daily News. In it, they talk about Heart Truth, the National Institute of Health's campaign to bring heart education to women. They also include a checklist of questions to take to your doctor, as well as a list to help you understand your own risk. Do yourself -- and your heart -- a favor today and read through the questions to determine if you need to do more to protect your health.
Thanks for reading The Cardio Blog, and don't forget to come visit us at That's Fit for all of the latest news in health and fitness!
Young women need to pay attention to their hearts too
Filed under: Diet, Family history, Prevention, Research, Exercise, Women Heart Health
Recently, a friend of mine went to the ER with pain in her left shoulder and shortness of breath. I'm too young for heart disease, she said to me when I called to check on her. But they soon had admitted her overnight for some tests, and though thankfully everything was fine, we both learned a lesson that day. We may be young at heart, but we aren't too young for heart disease. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women over the age of 25 and it takes more lives than all cancers combined in that age group. I was astonished by that fact. Though women under 50 are less likely to have a heart attack than men, they are more likely to die from them -- likely because women's symptoms can be vague and because women also tend to ignore them. Though those statistics may concern you, there are steps you can take to keep your ticker ticking in a healthy way. Check out this article from Women's Health Magazine that'll give you eight steps you to a healthy heart. There's a ton of good information there, including specific screening tests you can ask for at your next doctor's visit.
10 things you need to know about your heart problems
Filed under: Drugs, Women Heart Health, Men Heart Health, Aging Heart Health, Surgery
You've been diagnosed with a heart problem. You have a lot of questions but you can't seem to get your head around this, this thing that's just been dropped on you like bomb. You probably feel very alone but believe it or not, situations like this are pretty common so WebMD has come up with this handy list of things you should ask your doctor about your heart condition. You need to know the facts, what can be done and where you'll end up on this roller coaster of life--and you might not know which questions to ask. Either that or you're too overwhelmed to think it through. You can even print the list out and take it to your doctor.
If you've gone through this before, what information did you find the most useful?
Getting drunk increases women's heart attack risk
Filed under: Prevention, Research, Women Heart Health
When it comes to alcohol and heart attacks, it appears that moderation wins again. That news comes out of the University at Buffalo, New York, where researchers found that women who got drunk once a month or more sharply increased their risk of heart attack.What's interesting is that women who drink actually seem to have a decreased risk of suffering a heart attack, when compared to women who don't drink at all. But being intoxicated -- or drinking enough alcohol to slur your speech and change your behavior -- appears to reverse that benefit. And, according to the study, being drunk even infrequently is enough to put you at risk.
So the final word, according to Dr. Joan M. Dorn is:
"...if you don't drink, don't start, but if you're concerned about heart health, light to moderate consumption does appear to lower risk, but there's an upper limit."
What you need to know about coronary heart disease
Filed under: Prevention, Research, Women Heart Health, Men Heart Health
How much do you know about coronary heart disease? I'll admit that I don't know much -- afterall, I'm young and healthy and far from heart problems ... at least I hope I am. But everyone should be informed about their health. We don't need medical degrees but we should know what risks we face and what arising symptoms could mean.Dr. Naidu of Heart Matters recently posted this info on coronary heart disease, including the risk factors and prevention methods. By living a healthy lifestyle, not smoking, being active and managing my stress, I'm doing pretty well at preventing coronary heart disease, and it's good to know what I'm doing right. Don't you think?
Lifestyle strategies for your healthiest heart
Filed under: Women Heart Health, Men Heart Health, Aging Heart Health
We often post tips and facts about having a healthy heart, but over at That's Fit, I think this post sums up what you need to do to have a healthy heart. Here's what they recommend:- Get a good night's sleep
- Get active -- this especially includes resistance training
- Drink wine in moderation
- Eat fish, or some other source of Omega 3's
- Floss regularly
- Quit smoking
- Take a daily walk
- An aspirin a day can take the heart problems away -- but talk to your doctor first.
Heart x-ray linked to risk of cancer
Filed under: Women Heart Health, Children Heart Health
When a doctor wants to see inside a heart, one option is to use a procedure called computed tomography (CT) coronary angiography, which can identify problems inside the heart and arteries without making a cut. But the use of the higher radiation procedure on certain patients is being questioned. By taking what they know about certain kinds of radiation, researchers were able to predict the risk of developing cancer for various groups of people. What they found was that women who underwent the procedure were especially at risk, because the breasts may be damaged by the x-ray. Young women, especially, had an increased chance of developing cancer, because their is a longer period of time in front of them for cancer to develop. There are other procedures that can help make a diagnosis of a heart condition if a patient falls into a high-risk group, so it's likely that doctors will start weeding out who gets this kind of heart x-ray and who doesn't.
Living with heart disease: One woman's story
Filed under: Books, Women Heart Health
She was 39, athletic, a non-smoker and a healthy eater. Kathy Kastan thought she had taken all the right steps to prevent heart disease, and when she started to feel symptoms of a heart attack, she was shocked. She was diagnosed with a heart blockage and underwent lifesaving surgery but even after the surgery, she felt ill and anxious. She promised herself that if she ever got her health back, she would help others with her firsthand knowledge of heart disease. Well, She did get her health back and she's kept her promise. Kastan is now the president of the board of directors for WomenHealth: The National Coalition of Women with Heart Disease, and she's reached out to others in her situation by writing a book, called From the Heart: A Woman's Guide to Living Well with Heart Disease. To learn more about her story, check out this article.
None of us are immune to heart disease, and I'm glad Kastan is using her unfortunate experience to reach out to others who may living with this killer disease.
Phone survey shows disparity in awareness
Filed under: Research, Women Heart Health
500,000 women die annually from heart disease in the U.S., making it the leading cause of death. African-American women have the highest mortality rate from heart disease. Minority women are less likely than white women to be aware of the dangers of heart disease.
Three facts that add up to trouble.
In the January/February issue of the Journal of Women's Health, researchers from the New York Presbyterian Hospital published a study based on data collected to determine awareness of heart disease amount minorities. Comparing the results of a phone survey of 1,000 people with the results of a similar survey taken in 1997, the researcher found that 31 percent of African-American women and 29 percent of Hispanic women were aware of the disease, whereas 57 percent of white women were cognizant of the disease and its dangers.
In conducting the study, researchers also discovered that this disparity in awareness among white women and minority women has gone unchanged since the initial survey was conducted in 1997.
The entire study is available for online viewing in .PDF form at: http://www.kaisernetwork.org
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