On Healthy Living

This article from The New York Times is a must-read for every woman, and everyone who cares about a woman. It outlines a hidden heart-disease danger that is much more likely to happen to women than it does to men.

This ailment starves the heart for oxygen but doesn’t show up on an angiogram. It’s estimated that three million women could have this ailment, which is manifested by chest pain and can lead to a heart attack later.

A certain type of stress test that measures the amount of blood flow to the heart can help diagnose this condition, which seems to be linked to fatty blockages in the heart that can’t be see on x-rays.

Not every woman is at risk for this condition, but if you’ve had heart issues and had a clean angiogram, this could be your problem. As with most heart issues, it’s important to lower your cholesterol and blood pressure, lose weight, exercise more and quit smoking if you do smoke, in order to control this problem.

In a study, 10 percent of the women who showed no blockages died of heart disease over the course of four years. Doctors started to look into other abnormalities in teh arteries and found that women’s hearts had artery walls that were full of plaque but the walls grew to accomodate the plaque temporarily.

About the most important thing you can do for yourself if you want to have a good, long life, is to take care of your heart. Start today! It really could save your life.

Sarah White wrote this on February 1st, 2006 and filed it under Healthy Living, Diet & Exercise, Women's Health, Health & Aging |