Heart Attack In Women

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One study, involving about 1000 people in the Vancouver area, examined men's and women's knowledge of heart attack symptoms and best responses. It revealed that women were less likely to identify chest pain as a heart attack symptom. It's a finding Ratner says could be a result of misinformation about women's' general experience of heart attacks.

It could also be about age; on average, women have heart attacks when they're ten years older than men.

"It's possible that any differences in how some women and men experience heart attack symptoms is not because of their gender, but because of their age," Ratner says. With older age comes other chronic disorders, such as diabetes, which may alter heart attack symptoms.
 

Ratner is also concerned about how heart attack victims respond to symptoms, such as how quickly they sought help. There's a common belief, notes Ratner, that women wait longer to respond to heart attack symptoms. She's leading another study to examine this issue in more detail.

For both men and women, she says the key life and death decision in a heart attack is how quickly the patient calls 911, or gets to a hospital.

"Whether you're male or female, if you seek treatment within the first few hours of a heart attack, your outcome is far better." (www.impact.cihr.gc.ca)
 

The experts' message is that being active can be part of one's daily routine, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Playing with the dog. Or the kids. It all accumulates, and is good for us. No need to go for the burn - go for the fun.

- News Canada

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