IT surprises so many that heart disease kills more women than breast cancer. Actually, the cold truth is worse than that: Heart disease kills more women than all the female cancers put together. It is not just in the United States. In Malaysia, cardiovascular disease takes the life of one in three women. On the other hand, breast cancer kills one in eight. Worldwide Heart disease is a global phenomenon. Some 8.6 million women die from heart disease each year - a third of all women deaths. Three million women die of strokes annually and it kills more women than men (11 per cent versus 8.4 per cent). Heart attacks are more fatal to the fairer sex. 42 per cent of women with heart attacks die within a year compared to 24 per cent with the men. It is worse when they are younger. Women's heart attacks are twice as likely to kill compared to men when striking under the age of 50. Heart disease rises amongst women on oral contraceptives especially when they smoke. Women who smoke risk a heart attack 19 years earlier than those who don't. High blood pressure is more common in women in oral contraceptives. Raised blood pressure among women increases the risk of developing heart disease by 3.5 times. Sweet danger Women, diabetes and heart disease form a "fatal triangle". Female diabetics have more than double the risk of heart attacks. Diabetes doubles the risk of a second heart attack in women but not in men. Diabetes also affects more women than men after the age of 45. Heart attack survivors face the risk of disabling heart failure and again, women are at the wrong end. 46 per cent of women versus 22 per cent of men heart attacks survivors are disabled with heart failure within six years. Women are two to three times more likely to die from heart bypass surgery. Younger aged women between ages 40 and 59 are up to four times more likely to die from heart bypass surgery than men of the same age. Though aspirin that works well in men, might not do so in women. Talk about striking the heart: marital stress worsens the progression of heart disease in women with heart disease. Prevention Studies show that women who are eligible to receive life-saving clot buster drugs are far less likely than men to receive them. Women also receive far fewer heart procedures during emergencies than men. Indeed, the best course of treatment for women with heart disease in an emergency room has not been established. The female heart is more likely to respond to healthy lifestyle changes than males. Yet, only two per cent of the United States National Institutes of Health budget is allocated to prevention. Even more sadly, despite all the data that now suggest that heart disease is the No 1 killer of women and increases every year, women form only 24 per cent of all heart related studies. Going home The June 2006 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that women returning home after a heart attack are less likely than men to receive a crucial part of the treatment plan - the discharge instructions. Researchers of the University of Michigan looked at Medicare heart attack patients who were admitted in hospital just before and after procedures. Discharge documents were used significantly less in women than men. This document provides instructions with regard to specific treatment aspects, lifestyle changes, diet and follow up appointments. Different Women are not just smaller versions of men. That is what Professor Marianne Legato - the founding editor of the Journal of Gender Specific Medicine had to say at the key note address of the first Woman's Health and Asian Traditional (WHAT) Medicine conference in July last year. Then, why do women fear breast cancer more? It could be all the publicity focusing on breast cancer. The pink ribbons, the concerts, the docu-dramas and the charity runs for the cure have inadvertently left womenfolk with the wrong impression that breast cancer is the killer than they need to fear. Awareness of heart disease was just 13 per cent in the United States. A public survey conducted at the same WHAT Medicine, showed 82 per cent of women still ranked breast cancer as the No 1 killer and feared it the most. GO RED Adapting the campaign initiated by the American Heart Association and National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the United States, we have planned our own version of the GO RED campaign. Instead of the little Red Dress, the American logo, which may not be so relevant in the Malaysian context, the Bunga Raya is used as a logo. The campaign has a very simple message: Heart disease is the No 1 killer of women. It has very simple mission: to reduce heart disease and incidence amongst women. The method is equally simple: get every one to wear their red clothing and tell everyone that about the No 1 killer of women. It is no easy task. The movement needs all the help it can get. Datuk Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of our Deputy Prime Minister, has agreed to be the patron of the Malaysian GO RED campaign. The campaign and website www.go-red.info will be launched by the patron at the Institute Jantung Negara today. Ladies out there ... Love you heart. Go RED today. * Rajen M. is a pharmacist with a doctorate in Holistic Medicine. He is a director of the Malaysian Herbal Corporation and a CEO of a group of companies in alternative healthcare. References *Data on file - Woman's Health And Asian Traditional Medicine Conference (WHAT Medicine, 2005) *www.womenheartfoundation.org *www.hearthealtywomen.org *American Heart Journal, October 2006 *Archives of Internal Medicine 2006; 166:1164-1170 The New Straits Times (C) 2006 The New Straits Times. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved |
Alternative Medicine: A Woman's Heart is so Different Sunday, December 10, 2006 |
| Heart Disease is the Number 1 killer of women! Educating ourselves and others about heart disease and how it affects women is so important. I copied the article below from my cardiologist's group website, http://www.midwestheart.com |
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