Thursday is Wear Red Canada Day, which encourages women to take control of their heart health.
At the Halifax infirmary, hundreds gathered both in-person and virtually for an information session. Women shared their stories and doctors educated Maritimers about signs, risks, and ways to reduce the risk of heart disease and attacks.
According to Dr. Sharon Mulvagh, when it comes to heart disease, women are under-studied, under-diagnosed and under-treated.
“Heart disease is the number one killer of women globally and the number one premature killer of women in Canada. And this is something that has flown under the radar because of under- awareness. Under-support leads to under-research, leads to under-treatment,” says Mulvagh.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Colleen Gendron MacDonald was a fit, healthy and active 70-year-old. She never thought she would be living with heart disease.
“I started to notice that I was experiencing getting tired more often and I had this funny feeling in my chest, this squeezing, this tightening and being a women, I just shrugged it off and ignored it until it got to the point where I was short of breath,” says Gendron MacDonald.
Gendron MacDonald’s symptoms in her chest accelerated and she experienced demobilizing fatigue.
“From there I knew I was in trouble, so I went to my family doctor and told her my story and I was referred to a cardiologist,” says Gendron MacDonald.
Gendron MacDonald underwent several tests and she was diagnosed with cardiac ischemia. In simpler terms, her heart wasn’t getting enough blood.
Gendron MacDonald says she is lucky the doctors caught it because in many cases women are misdiagnosed or dismissed.
“Being diagnosed with cardiac health or having a cardiac episode is very scary, you are looking in the mirror at your mortality,” says Gendron MacDonald. “It is true that as women age, we become more at risk for cardiovascular disease just like a man does and that’s part of our presentation today, is on menopause and the impact of menopause on women because women are more protected with their natural hormones prior to the menopause. But women can get different times of heart attacks which tend to affect younger women.”
Mulvagh says one type that affects younger women is a tear in the artery. She says 90 per cent of patients that get that type of a heart attack are women. She adds it may be missed and not recognized.
“Because younger women don’t maybe think they are at risk for heart attack and particularly if they have risk factors – diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, overweight, high cholesterol – many of these things fly under the radar and its missed.
Mulvagh says heart disease is the number one killer of women globally.
“And the number one premature killer of women in Canada. And this is something that has flown under the radar because of under- awareness, under support leads to under research, leads to under treatment,” says Mulvagh.
She explains both men and women heart attack symptoms can be similar but for women’s symptoms are unique to them and people need to be made aware of them.
“About three quarters of women will develop some type of chest discomfort or upper body discomfort in the throes of a major heart attack but many times that symptom can also be in the upper back, shoulders and the upper abdominal area. And moreover, it can be not expressed as chest pain as men usually describe it but more as a tightness, discomfort that is not necessarily the main feature of a bunch of other symptoms that women can have more than men too,” says Mulvagh.
Mulvagh says there are the traditional risk factors, including high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, high cholesterol and overweight or obesity.
“And then there are sex-specific risk factors which would be history of complications during pregnancy, including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes or preterm birth,” says Mulvagh.
Mulvagh and Dr. Maria Migas say menopause also plays a part.
“As a woman reaches menopause and before that perimenopause, there is a vast hormonal fluctuation that occur as a result of the ovaries starting to age out and so we have lower estrogen, lower progesterone and even lower testosterone and all these hormones impact every tissue of our body including the heart,” says Migas.
Mulvagh also says more than 80 per cent of heart disease cases are preventable. She says physical activity is important, as well as strength training and a healthy diet. Education is key and listening to your body is key.
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