Transcription:
How is Heart Disease Different for Women?

Melanie Cole (Host): Heart disease isn’t just a man’s disease. But heart disease symptoms are often different for women. Would you know the signs and symptoms of heart disease when they happen?My guest today is Dr. Brandy Patterson. She’s board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease. Her specialties include women’s heart health and general cardiology. Welcome to the show, Dr. Patterson.Let’s start with heart disease in women: number one killer. Tell us about heart disease in women and why it’s so different than it is in man?

Dr. Brandy Patterson: Well, every minute in the United States, somebody’s wife, mother, daughter or sister dies from heart disease, stroke or another form of cardiovascular disease. Every year, more than 400,000 women in the United States die from heart disease. It is the leading cause of death in women and kills six times more women than breast cancer alone. Right now, more than one in three women is living with some form of cardiovascular disease, including nearly half of all African-American women. Although heart disease death rates among men have declined steadily over the last 25 years, rates among women have fallen at a much lower rate. There are many potential reasons for this. However, women may not always recognize that they are having a problem with their heart because their symptoms may be much more subtle.

Melanie: Speak about the symptoms, because, really, Dr. Patterson, we, women, are always taking care of everybody else in our lives and we get our men to go to the doctors and we take our children and we do everything for everybody. But, you know, we can’t take care of everybody else. I always say, we have to put our own mask on before we put the other kids’ masks on. We have to know these symptoms. They’re so important but we don’t recognize them for what they are. We usually dismiss them as something related to stress or tension. Tell us these symptoms that differ in women.

Dr. Patterson: That’s right. All of us have seen the movie scenes, where a man gasps, clutches his chest and falls to the ground, and it’s always a man. But in reality, the heart attack victim could easily be a woman, but the scene may not be that dramatic. Instead, women may experience symptoms of dizziness, sometimes cold sweat, lightheadedness, sometimes just shortness of breath, pressure pain in the lower chest or upper abdomen that they may think is reflux. They may have caught a GI, a virus going around with some nausea and abdominal pain, sometimes upper back pressure, or pain in one arm or both arms, in the jaw, or just extreme fatigue. And so, as I said, women may attribute these symptoms to reflux and upper respiratory infection, GI virus going around, or just getting older. The signs and symptoms can be subtle but the consequences are deadly, especially if the victim doesn’t get help right away. So it is very important for women to understand what their risk for coronary artery disease and for heart disease in general is. They need to learn what their personal risk is for heart disease.

Melanie: What are some steps that women can take to protect themselves and things that we can do to prevent heart disease?

Dr. Patterson: That’s a good point. Heart disease is preventable. There are a few non-modifiable risk factors, meaning, risk factors we can’t change. Number one, that’s our age. We don’t have a choice. We’re getting older and as we get older, plaque does build up in the coronary arteries and we’re more likely to have a heart disease as we get older. We can’t change that. We can’t change our gender. We can’t change our family history. We are born with the genes that we have. If you do have family members that have had heart disease, you are more likely to have it yourself, especially if they had it at a younger age.
The risk factors that you can change, that you can modify, are those reasons why heart disease is largely preventable:
1. Smoking. Smoking really makes the plaque progression much more rapid in the coronary arteries. So don’t even start smoking, and if you are smoking, quit. After quitting for just about a year or so, you really cut your risk by about half of having plaque progression that is accelerated.
2. Your blood pressure. Control blood pressure. Know what your numbers are.
3. Your weight. Obese patients—or obese women in general—tend to have accelerated plaque progression.
4. Your cholesterol. Know your cholesterol.
5. If you have diabetes, try and control it as best as you can. Get out and start an exercise program. Just walking at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week, at moderate intensity can lower your risk for heart attack and stroke.
6. Modify your family diet if needed. Follow a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet.
So, as you can see, there are a number of risk factors for heart disease that are modifiable, and women do have the ability to adopt positive lifestyle habits. And as you mentioned, women tend to take care of everybody else in the family, so if women tend to adopt the positive lifestyle habits in their life, they’re more likely to have their significant others as well as their children adopt those positive healthy lifestyle habits, as well.

Melanie: Absolutely great information, so well put, Dr. Patterson. What is Club Red? And how can someone get involved?

Dr. Patterson: Club Red is a UVA Heart and Vascular Center initiative that is designed to help women understand and manage their risk factors for heart disease. It’s free and it’s an online program, and it inspires women to live a heart-healthy lifestyle by providing them with health tips and recipes, as well as fun community events throughout the year. You can go online at clubreduva.com to learn more information.

Melanie: Give us really some of your best advice about women who may already have heart disease. So we spoke a little bit about prevention. But now, if they’ve already come up with it, whether it’s genetic or just something that they’ve had, what can they do to treat it? What do you do for them?

Dr. Patterson: I’m a firm believer in regular healthcare provider appointments to ensure that the blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, diabetes are well-controlled. And again, I can reinforce it enough, walking, exercising, anything that you can do to get up and active, will help prevent the progression of coronary artery disease, as well as eating a healthy Mediterranean diet. In general, for women that have already had the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, whether it’s obstructive or non-obstructive, we prescribe the same regimen: controlling blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, exercising, living a healthy lifestyle by eating a Mediterranean diet, and not smoking. The things that we do to prevent heart disease are the same things that we do to help control progression as well. Of course, once women are diagnosed with non-obstructive or obstructive coronary artery disease, there may be more medications involved in treating and helping to prevent the progression, as if you did not have any coronary artery disease. But it’s something, again, that the healthcare provider follow-up on a regular basis can keep track of and tailor your medication according to your situation.

Melanie: Dr. Patterson, in just the last minute or so, give us your best advice for women and heart disease and why someone should come to UVA for their heart care.

Dr. Patterson: Well, UVA provides wellness and health for all women, whether or not they have coronary disease or are just looking to find ways to prevent coronary artery disease and heart disease. Their standards of care are amongst the best in the nation and it truly is a wonderful place to come to for the best healthcare in the country.

Melanie: Thank you so much. You’re listening to UVA Health Systems Radio. For more information, you can go to uvahealth.com. That’s uvahealth.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thank you so much for listening and have a great day.