Women and Heart Attack

If you're a woman, you may not believe you're as vulnerable to a heart attack as men–but you are. Women account for nearly half of all heart attack deaths. Heart disease is the number one killer of both women and men.

There are differences in how women and men respond to a heart attack. Women are less likely than men to believe they're having a heart attack and more likely to delay in seeking emergency treatment.

Further, women tend to be about 10 years older than men when they have a heart attack. They are more likely to have other conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure–making it all the more vital that they get proper treatment fast.

Women should learn the heart attack warning signs. These are:

	Pain or discomfort in the center of the chest.
	Pain or discomfort in other areas of the upper body, including the arms, back, neck, jaw, or stomach.
	Other symptoms, such as a shortness of breath, breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, or light-headedness.

As with men, women's most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

If you feel heart attack symptoms, do not delay. Remember, minutes matter! Do not wait for more than a few minutes–5 minutes at most–to call 9-1-1. Your family will benefit most if you seek fast treatment.

Heart Disease Still Top One Killer in America

Not to ruin your holiday spirit, but the annual Mortality Report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics has been released, with the latest statistics representing 2008. There is actually some good news in the report to temper the bad. And a few surprises popped up this year, as well.

The good news is that the age-adjusted death rate for the U.S. population fell for the ninth straight year to an all-time low of 758.7 deaths per 100,000 population in 2008—0.2 percent lower than the 2007 rate of 760.2. The infant mortality rate also declined, from 6.77 to 6.59 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, which is considered to be an all-time low. However, that still means that we lost 2,473,018 American men, women and children in 2008.

Strangely, life expectancy was down for both males and females, although not dramatically. On average, Americans are living an average of 77.8 years (down from 77.9), with longevity among men at 75.3 and females at 80.3 years.

Leading cause of death, which is no surprise, is heart disease. Here are the top 5:

1. Heart Disease

2. Cancer: Maintains it second place spot, joining with heart disease to account for 48% of all deaths in 2008.

3. Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases: Jumped over Stroke to nab the #3 spot this year. Deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases increased a whopping 7.8%.

4. Stroke: Slipping from the third spot for the first time in fifty years, deaths from strokes declined 3.8%

5. Accidents (unintentional injuries)

In addition to stroke, mortality rates declined for five other leading causes of death: accidents (3.5 percent), homicide (3.3 percent), diabetes (3.1 percent), heart disease (2.2 percent), and cancer (1.6 percent). On the flip side, mortality rates increased significantly in 2008 for #3 Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases, as well as Alzheimer’s disease (7.5 percent), influenza and pneumonia (4.9 percent), hypertension (4.1 percent), suicide (2.7 percent), and kidney disease (2.1 percent).

Birth defects were the leading cause of infant death in 2008, followed by disorders related to preterm birth and low birth weight. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was the third leading cause of infant death in the United States, with maternal complication in pregnancy coming in at #4, and accidents at #5. There is some disparity among races in this category. The infant mortality rate for black infants was 12.68 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 13.24 per 1,000 live births in 2007, however this does a decrease of 4.2%.

The data in the 2008 Mortality Report are based on 99 percent of death certificates reported to NCHS through the National Vital Statistics System from all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. The full report is available here.

Source: http://www.healthnews.com/disease-illness/heart-disease-remains-1-killer-in-america-4600.html