Any woman who thinks heart attacks are a man`s problem is making a potentially fatal mistake, a cardiologist says.
Younger women don`t have as many heart attacks as men their age, but they catch up quickly after menopause.
”Eventually, just as many women get a heart attack as men,” says Dr. William Castelli, director of the Framingham Project, which has followed more than 5,000 residents of the Massachusetts town for more than four decades.
”But usually they get their attacks at an older age. That`s why they tend to be more severe.”
Statistics show the death rate from heart attacks is twice as high for women as for men.
”Once a woman goes through menopause, her coronary arteries start to become clogged,” Castelli says. ”A woman`s arteries are smaller than a man`s, so it takes only only 6 to 10 years after menopause to catch up.”
There`s also a difference in the way women respond to standard diagnostic tests, Castelli says.
”Cardiologists realize that when a woman comes in complaining of chest pains and you run through all the tests, you get less positive results than in men. I think that has given cardiologists a false impression that this disease is not as dangerous in women.”
The established risk factors-smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure-are as dangerous for women as for men.
