The sudden and tragic death of actress Carrie Fisher is shedding light on what killer her: a heart attack. Hopefully, her death will alert women to the disturbing reality that heart attacks sneak up on women more than men because our symptoms are often a lot more subtle, and can even masquerade as symptoms of our everyday hectic lives. That's why every woman should know the symptoms and not overlook them.
As if that's not bad enough, when women do take the initiative to tell doctors about these subtle symptoms, far too often the female patients are not taken seriously, and her condition is misdiagnosed as something far less severe than what is actually taking place.
There's a modern myth that heart disease is a man's disease. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, more women die from it than men.
.One of the reasons women's heart disease is missed is because women's coronary arteries are smaller than men's. So when a man has a heart attack, the crushing chest pain is an obvious red flag. But when a woman has a heart attack, the signs are often more subtle.
1. MILD chest pain
2. Neck, shoulder, upper back or abdominal discomfort
3. Shortness of breath
4. Nausea or Vomiting
5. Sweating
6. Lightheadedness or dizziness
7. Unusual fatigue
More bad news for us gals: women's risk factors are different from men's. Smoking is much worse for women than men. Mental stress and depression affect women's hearts more than men's and high blood pressure and obesity have a greater impact on women than on men.