Heart disease kills more people - both men and women - than any other cause. Despite the obvious statistics, many women who are having a heart attack ignore or deny the possibility.
Their own doctors may even contribute to the problem - many went through medical school learning that women seldom had heart attacks.
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It's true that more men experience heart symptoms or die from heart attacks at a younger age - before age 60. Women aren't immune, however, although their initial symptoms of heart problems may be more vague than in men.
Dr Kim Mulvihill, a columnist for KRON-TV in San Francisco, warns that younger women are three times as likely to die from a heart attack than comparably aged men.
A woman's own idea of who's at risk may even let treatable heart disease progress to the point where a serious or fatal heart attack occurs. "Women don't even think about it and delay seeking help," says Stephen Sinatra, a cardiologist at New England Heart Centre, in Manchester. "Then, if the diagnosis is delayed you have a disaster on your hands."
A feature from the Providence Journal explains how even nurses having heart attacks deny the possibility of heart problems.
Most women can lower their risk of heart disease by treating high blood cholesterol and getting regular exercise. Last year, the British Heart Foundation found that 38 percent of women who died from heart disease didn't get enough exercise, and nearly half had high cholesterol.
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