Do heart attack symptoms look different in women than in men?
While women can experience typical heart attack symptoms - chest pain, pressure and tightness - they can also experience other, more subtle symptoms, such as shortness of breath, nausea, fatigue, arm or jaw pain, Dr. Ball said.
There are early warning signs of cardiovascular disease that everyone should heed, including elevated blood pressure. Additionally, if women feel unexplained new fatigue, unexplained shortness of breath, or chest pressure or tightness, they should get evaluated.
“If you are feeling short of breath with something that doesn't usually cause you to feel short of breath, that's a sign that we need to take another look at the heart. It’s really important for patients to have a regular exercise routine so that they can compare their level of physical fitness to a point in the past,” Dr. Ball said.
Why do black and brown communities face higher risks for heart disease?
There are a lot of factors that go into an individual’s risk of heart disease. Some risk factors are universal, such as high blood pressure and smoking.
“Your genetics and your cultural heritage can certainly play a role,” Dr. Ball said. “We see from a social justice standpoint that certain communities are more likely to have heart disease and are less likely to get the care that they need.”
It’s important to familiarize yourself with your personal profile, which includes lifestyle choices, such as smoking or lack of exercise, and your family history of cardiovascular disease, to fully understand your risk.
It’s also important to check in with a health professional to help control your risk factors.
“Talk about your blood pressure. Talk about your cholesterol. Talk about the other habits you have that may impact your heart health,” said Dr. Ball. “Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans. Patients need to understand how their lifestyle and their culture can contribute to their individual risk for heart disease.”
Does sleep affect heart health?
Sleep plays a significant role in your cardiovascular health, Dr. Ball said. In fact, the American Heart Association recently added sleep as one of Life’s Essential 8, or one of the risk factors that everybody should look at when it comes to cardiovascular disease.
Several sleep related conditions can affect cardiovascular disease, including obstructive sleep apnea, which can significantly increase the risk of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and can make AFib more difficult to treat, she said. A lack of sleep can also affect blood pressure, so it's important to address sleep concerns.
Does menopause affect women’s heart health?
“Hormones play a huge role in women's heart health, and one of the things that distinguishes women's heart health from men's is the fact that their hormones change over the course of their life,” Dr. Ball said.
Going through menopause can cause blood pressure and cholesterol to rise, she said. It’s important for women to keep blood pressure and cholesterol under control and adopt heart-healthy habits as well, such as not smoking, eating healthy, and being physically active.
Are there any additional differences between men and women when it comes to heart health?
One important factor for women’s heart health is that a history of adverse pregnancy outcomes can increase a woman’s risk of cardiovascular disease later in life.
“If you were diagnosed with preeclampsia or gestational diabetes, it's really important that you let your primary care doctor know so that you can get more aggressive with treating your cardiovascular risk factors,” Dr. Ball said.
In women, there is a condition called SCAD (spontaneous coronary artery dissection), which is a different type of heart attack that predominantly affects women and tends to affect young women.
“For so long we thought that heart disease was a man's disease and that women are essentially immune. We now know that that's not the case,” she said. “Women might present differently. They might present at different points in their life, and they have different types of heart disease that can affect them.”
What’s the number one thing you can do to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease?
Quit smoking, Dr. Ball said.
“The one message that I think is really important for young patients to hear is: do not start smoking. Don't smoke at any point in your life,” Dr. Ball said.
Are more younger adults facing heart issues?
Cardiovascular disease can affect individuals at a wide range of ages. Physicians are seeing more women who are approaching pregnancy with a pre-existing diagnosis of heart disease, Dr. Ball said. This could be partly because women are having children later in life, and partly because diagnostics have advanced and physicians are able to identify cardiovascular disease earlier.
“We also see more patients are surviving with congenital heart disease. And that's just from advances in cardiovascular disease management,” Dr. Ball said.
What is a heart scan and who should consider getting one?
“Heart scans are an interesting tests that allow us to screen for cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Ball said. “Basically, we look for calcium in the arteries around the heart, which would suggest that there may be some plaque or blockage in the arteries around the heart.”
Heart scans are recommended for men over the age of 40 and women over the age of 45 with one or more of the following risk factors:
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Smoking
- Family history of heart disease
“Identifying risk factors early and treating them early can significantly reduce the risk of developing a heart disease or can delay the progression,” Dr. Ball said.
Are dental health and heart health connected?
“There’s a huge connection between your dental health and your heart health,” Dr. Ball said.
Bacteria from gum disease can get into your bloodstream and cause inflammation, hardened arteries and even blood clots.
Treating gum disease can help reduce inflammation, which can protect against heart disease. Regular dental cleanings and checkups are key to protecting heart health.
How do GLP-1 medications affect heart health?
Dr. Ball said one of the biggest recent advancements in prevention of heart disease is the advent of the GLP-1 medications. They can help people manage their weight, but also their blood pressure, cholesterol and overall cardiovascular risk.
“No weight loss drug has been proven truly safe in the very long term,” Dr. Ball said. “That being said, the GLP-1 drugs have been around in one form or another for over 20 years, and we have significant safety data on them that show that they're actually so safe that we started to use them for preventive reasons.”
