A new study has revealed that women tend to ignore the warning signals of a heart disease, Atlanta Blackstar reports.
The American Heart Association says while a lot of attention is given to men in the prevention and treatment of heart disease, there is still significant work to be done in educating women about the detection and treatment of heart disease.
Every year, 53,000 women in the United States die from a heart attack.
Medical experts believe that women have heart disease symptoms that men do not.
The most common symptom of a heart attack is chest discomfort or pain.
However, medical experts say that women are more likely to experience nausea, shortness of breath, vomiting and pain in the jaw or back. Women may also experience heart palpitations or a feeling of dread when they are having a heart attack.
Dr. Laxmi Mehta, director of the Women's Cardiovascular Health Program at The Ohio State University, said that "despite stunning improvements in cardiovascular deaths over the last decade, women still fare worse than men, and heart disease in women remains undiagnosed and under-treated, especially among African-American women."
Mehta was the writing team leader for the first written work by the AHA that solely focused on heart disease and women.
The primary cause of heart attacks, in both men and women, are blocked arteries, even though the blockage forms differently in women than in men. Even though women have less severe blockages than men, there is significant damage in the arteries that carry blood to the heart.
According to the AHA, 26 percent of women die within a year of having their first heart attack, as compared to 19 percent of men since they do not receive a proper diagnosis from the doctor.
Also, 40 percent of the people who die suddenly from a heart attack or heart-related event are women.
Additionally, heart attacks in young women are more severe than the heart attacks suffered by young men. Research also shows that women wait too long to seek medical attention, when they are having a heart attack.
