Heartbeat heroes

Dying from breast cancer is a very common fear for women, but in reality, it is cardiovascular disease that poses a far greater threat. 

Cardiovascular disease – which includes heart attack, heart failure and stroke – kills more than four times  as many women than breast cancer, and is the number-one cause of death of women in Australia. 

Yes – you read that right. Cardiovascular disease is the number-one killer of women in Australia.

Hollywood hasn’t done female heart health any favours. 

In movies and on TV, the characters who have heart attacks are almost always male, white and working in a high-powered job. Storylines of women with heart disease are few and far between – and this is one reason why heart disease is often misunderstood as a male-only problem.

On top of this, real heart attacks can look and feel very differently to how they’re presented on screen. Symptoms such as chest pain can range from mild to severe, they can last several minutes, or they can come and go.

In fact, many people are able to go about their day while unknowingly having a heart attack, all the while causing significant damage to their heart muscle and cardiovascular system.  

Rather than the chest pain men often feel, women may experience breathlessness, nausea, back pain, jaw pain, tightness or discomfort in the arms, shortness of breath or a general feeling of being unwell. 

Women can feel pain or discomfort in the centre of the chest when having a heart attack, but not always. 

That’s why it’s important to know all the symptoms of a heart attack and recognise that, for women, it often goes beyond the stereotype we see on screen. 

Research shows that when women are having a heart attack, they tend to wait longer than men to call an ambulance or to go to hospital. 

One study found that on average, women wait about 54 hours to seek treatment, compared with about 16 hours for men.

Researchers believe this longer delay time is because women think they are not at risk of a heart attack, or they think the symptoms are due to something less serious. There’s also evidence that women tend to put the health of others ahead of their own. 

When men have chest pain, health professionals often hear them say it was their wife/female partner who urged them to go to the emergency room, but what happens when the tables are turned? 

The lesson: take steps to reduce your risk of heart disease, know the symptoms of a heart attack and put your health first.

Several studies have shown that, much like the general population, even healthcare professionals can dismiss how deadly heart disease is for women.

Recent Australian research  showed that women with heart disease were less likely to receive high-quality healthcare from professionals compared to men with heart disease. Women were less likely to be prescribed recommended medications and less likely to receive routine checks such as a blood test for lipids (fats).

Also, women with stroke are more likely to have a delay in care compared to men, and are less likely to be prescribed treatments such as aspirin, statins or clot-busters (thrombolytics). 

The take-home advice for women is to know your risk and work towards decreasing it. If you are diagnosed with heart disease, double-check with your doctor that you receive all the advice, tests and medications you need to keep your heart as healthy as possible.

A stroke occurs when a blood vessel to your brain get blocked by a clot or bleeds. And it’s a life-threatening emergency.

According to a 2016 Australian Government report, around 4900 females die each year from stroke compared to 3200 males. 

This difference is largely due to the fact that women tend to have strokes when they are older, so the impact is more severe. However, researchers say there are other factors specific to women’s health that are at play.  

The good news is, just like other types of heart disease, stroke is largely preventable because many of its risk factors are changeable, such as high blood pressure, physical inactivity, being overweight and smoking.

Oestrogen is a hard-working hormone. Not only limited to our reproductive and bone health, oestrogen affects almost every tissue in the body, including the cardiovascular system. 

Research  shows that oestrogen helps to protect our blood vessels and to keep our cholesterol levels normal.  It is a true heart-health helper.

This is of course wonderful news, but there is a ‘but’… when women reach menopause, levels of oestrogen – and the heart protection it provides – falls dramatically, and our risk of heart disease shoots up. It’s not the only reason why risk of heart disease increases so greatly in women after menopause, but it’s a big one. 

There are some things that increase our risk of heart disease that we can't do much about, such as our age, sex and family history. But there are many other factors that are within our power to change.

In fact, more than 90% of women in Australia have at least one risk factor they can improve upon, and 50% of all women have two or three.

So what steps do you need to take to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease? That’s what today’s topic is all about.