Cardiovascular diseases are easy to prevent and to identify. The challenge is to change the daily habits that could cause them.
The first time we experience this type of event, it could me mortal. The reason why is important to review our habits and to correct individually the risk facts. Heart diseases are usually caused by many factors and for a gather of situations that most women let pass. Not taking exams on time could take us to a higher heart risk or damage.
Is common to find how lots of women unknow all the risk factors and they don’t know how to certainly identify when they are ill from heart. We always tend to underestimate the symptoms. Thinking they are normal or they are just our emotions result. But we always let the symptoms pass thinking they won’t cause any damage and that we are just empowered executive/moms, we believe we are super moms. Always taken special care of lower family and friends but not of our own wellness and health.
The American Heart Association published in 1999 the “Guide to prevent heart disease in women” there was an increase in cases of coronary heart disease in women, all due to an alarming increase in risk factors such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sedentary lifestyle and also lack of cardiac rehabilitation after an acute myocardial infarction, due to this began to implement large education campaigns to women to understand the importance of knowledge of diseases of the heart. Actually, the numbers have been reduced without saying that the goal established more than 15 years ago has been reached.
I WANT TO SHARE SOME FIGURES OF HEART DISEASES IN WOMEN
As The American association of heart has shown through their recent statistics. Heart disease is the main cause of death in women. 1 of every 3 deaths a year are caused by this disease. This is a number to be aware of because every minute a woman die for a heart disease or heart attack.
Cardiovascular disease affects around 44 million of women in The United States.
90% of women have one or more risk factors to get heart disease or heart attack
In 80% of cases, heart disease or heart attack could be prevented by making some changes in life style and getting some education.
Fewer women than men survive the first heart attack.
The symptoms of heart attack in women can be confusing or misinterpreted because in some cases they manifest themselves differently from men, in some cases we ourselves reduce importance and in others it is the doctors who underestimate the seriousness of the symptoms.
HOW DOES HEART DISEASE BEHAVE IN HISPANIC WOMEN?
Speaking about Latin women, close to 21.000 pass away every year because of this disease. There is a factor that makes the situation a little worse in this community and that is that we developed the disease 10 years earlier than Caucasian women and even worse we are not aware of the Heart disease as a factor of a real risk to our health, only 34% of Latin women recognize them, besides Hispanic women we have less access to health security.
WHAT CAN CAUSE A HEART DISEASE?
There are different factors, but one of the most important is the atherosclerosis that is the cause of the origin of heart attacks becoming one of the main targets to attack when we decide to change our habits of life.
MOST COMMON SYMPTOMS
In women, sometimes they are confusing and sometimes they may develop silent infarcts, that is, they are experiencing heart attacks but they do not have any symptoms, other women develop classic symptoms such as pain in the jaw, neck, left arm, pain type pressure or stinging in the chest, pain in the area of the upper abdomen, back or even similar to gastritis. These symptoms can appear during exercise, during stressful situations or simply when you are in the comfort of your home sitting on the couch.
Heart disease caused by the disease of the coronary arteries could manifest itself in the following ways:
- Heart attack: Chest pain, pain in the upper back, feeling heaviness stomach or gastritis-like stomach burning, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, drowning and / or short breathing.
- Arrhythmia: Palpitations in the chest.
- Heart Failure: Ragged breathing, extreme tiredness, swelling of the feet, ankles, legs and abdomen.
- Brain Vascular Accident (known in the common language as “Stroke”): Sudden and severe onset of headache, weakness, inability to move, numbness of the face, arms and legs, usually on one side of the body. Other associated symptoms are: confusion, difficulty speaking, understanding when they speak to us or following commands or voice commands, loss of consciousness among other symptoms.
It is important that women live a healthy life because we are role models for the family. We have the responsibility to teach our loved ones what is good for their health and the best way is to set a good example. We must be attentive to the aforementioned symptoms in order not to discover a heart disease when it is already advanced and can completely change the dynamics of our lives, I recommend that you begin to take care of yourself already, being attentive to changes, if you take care of yourself, you can live a life not only long; healthy and growing every day with the confidence that your heart is in the best hands … yours!
