According to data from the Central Statistical Office, women more often than men suffer from heart disease and therefore die. Up to 250 Polish women die from this every day.
For 40 years, cardiovascular diseases have been the leading cause of death in Poland – both among men and women. It’s just that if you look closely at the data, more than half of the deaths in women are due to heart disease, which kills more often than cancer. In the case of men, they are responsible for 40 percent. deaths. The belief that a heart attack is a typical male condition is therefore not confirmed by the facts.
Why do women die of heart disease? The easiest way to answer this question is to say: otherwise they get sick. Until the menopause, women’s hormones, estrogens, protect women’s hearts. They raise the level of good cholesterol and prevent atherosclerosis. This is why Heart problems begin 10 years later in women than in men. Ailments usually appear after the age of sixty.
However, it is a myth that the symptoms of a heart attack are completely different for them. – For both men and women, the classic symptoms of a heart attack are the same: chest pains, usually described as crushing, stretching, choking, or unbearable pressure. The pains are strong and radiate to the jaw and arms, they may be accompanied by anxiety, fainting, arrhythmia, dizziness – explains Prof. dr hab. n. med. Artur Mamcarz, specialist in internal diseases and cardiology, head of the XNUMXrd Department of Internal Diseases and Cardiology of the XNUMXnd WL Medical University of Warsaw, expert of the “Healthy SHE” program. The specialist adds that there are also unusual symptoms that you must pay attention to. These are, for example, epigastric pain, nausea, vomiting.
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Pain is the most characteristic symptom of a heart attack. – It is intense, accompanied by a feeling of fear, danger – explains prof. Mamcarz. And although it is a very specific symptom, sometimes ladies confuse it with, for example, neuralgia and decide to wait it out. Doctors sound the alarm: women are admitted to the hospital later than men, which can be fatal in the event of a heart attack. In cardiology, there is talk of the so-called “Golden hour” – a patient with symptoms of a heart attack should receive help within 60 minutes. This increases the chances of survival.
The material was created as part of the nationwide educational campaign «Your Family. Health and Lifestyle », which was launched in the press on September 13, as a special thematic supplement in Gazeta Wyborcza, in the online version at wpunktozdrowiu.pl and on many websites dealing with family and health issues. You can read all the texts here.