how to prevent heart attack •

Women are more likely than men to die within a year of having their first heart attack.

Recent statistics show that heart attacks are more deadly for women than for men. More precisely, women are more likely than men to die within a year of having their first heart attack.

When we think of heart attack, too often people think of it as something that primarily affects men. The truth is women are just as likely to suffer a heart attack as men are. And, many times the signs are so subtle women might not even know they’re having one. Warning signs of a heart attack can actually be quite different for women.

While both men and women experience chest pain, women are somewhat more likely to experience other common symptoms, including shortness of breath; pain or discomfort in one or both arms, neck, back, jaw or stomach; nausea; light-headedness; or cold sweat. Because of the subtleness of the symptoms, women will often attribute them to something else like the flu or acid reflux or just ignore them all together.

The sobering fact comes from a first-ever scientific statement issued by the American Heart Association on women and heart disease. The report documents differences in symptoms and causes of heart attacks experienced by males and females that may contribute to women’s higher death rate. 26% of women die within a year of having their first heart attack, compared to 19% of men.

Another result of the study is that the treatment after a heart attack differs for men and women. Women are less likely to be prescribed medications known to prevent future heart attacks, the AHA declared. They’re also less likely than men to receive a recommendation for cardiac rehabilitation.

While the statistics are sobering, there is some good news. Many of the risk factors that lead to heart attack and heart disease can be controlled. Making healthy lifestyle changes is the perfect place to start. Quitting smoking, staying active and losing weight are immediate ways to reduce this threatening risk.

While people cannot control their family history, knowing there is such a risk should make them more vigilant about their heart health, especially if they are not feeling well.

However, there are signs that the gap is closing, researchers affirmed, noting that in recent years, heart-disease-related deaths for women have declined significantly. The experts’ final conclusion is that both medical communities and the general public need more education and awareness about heart disease risks for women.

Women definitely need to be aware of their symptoms and risks.

declared Laxmi Mehta, M.D., lead author of the AHA’s statement.

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A new study reveals the vital importance of excercising and it’s very interesting.

By vital importance the researchers refer to the proven fact that people who are fit are more likely to survive their first heart attack. In add to this theory, they came to the conclusion that low fitness training may pose a risk of death following a cardiac arrest.

What are the grounds of this new theory? Well, the findings were based on medical records data gathered from 2,377 men and women with an average age of 62 by researchers at Johns Hopkins and the Henry Ford Health System.

The medical records used in this study were taken from individuals who had completed a treadmill stress test before suffering their first heart attack.

The team of experts used patients’ metabolic equivalent score (MET score), differing from 1 to 12, in order to assess the body’s energy consumption. The two energy consumptions situations were: one, for when the individual is at rest and the other one, for when the individual is participating in physical activity.

Even though this way of measuring might not be the ideal measure of energy, the higher the MET score, the fitter an individual is considered to be. Therefore, the results show that if a patient presented a high MET score, the level of fitness was as high as that score or even higher.

All in all, as a conclusion of this study, the researchers noticed that a good fitnness score implies a much lower risk of death after a first heart attack.

After putting together all the data and figuring out the results, the team declared that their research had also limitations, such as not looking into the sevrity of the heart attacks as being a factor in the rate of survivals.

However, the interesting thing about this theory is that this is the first time an association has been made between the level of fitness and survival rate after a first heart attack.

Knowing all the facts that prove that the study is right, what is there left to do? Doctors have analyzed this questions.

Clinton Brawner, physiologist and researcher at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, US firmly sustains that doctors working with patients who have cardiovascular risk factors should adivse their patients to work out more often.

When being questioned how he would advise a patient, Clinton Brawner answered that the solution is being straightforward: ‘You need to start an exercise programme now to improve your fitness and chances of survival, should you experience a heart attack.’

Image Source: phillymag.com

Heart Attacks Are More Deadly For Women Than For Men

New Study Reveals The Vital Importance Of Excercising

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