Heart Diseases In Women

There is a popular myth that most people, including women nurture that they are immune to heart diseases & heart attacks. After certain age in women with multiple cardiovascular risk factors, the hormone oestrogen does not protect them from sudden heart attack & both men and women are prone to heart disease alike.

Symptoms

The most common heart attack symptom in women is some type of pain, pressure or discomfort in the chest. But it is not always severe or even the most prominent symptom, particularly in women. And, sometimes, women may have a heart attack without chest pain.

Lifestyle Interventions

Cigarette Smoking
Women should be advised not to smoke and avoid  environmental tobacco smoke. Provide counseling at each encounter, nicotine replacement & other pharmacotherapy as indicated in conjunction with a behavioral program or formal smoking cessation program.

Physical Activity
Women should be advised to accumulate at least 150 min/wk of moderate exercise. Aerobic activity should be performed in episodes of at least 10 minutes, preferably spread throughout the week.

Dietary intake
Women should be advised to consume a diet rich in fruits and vegetables; to choose whole - grain, high-fibre foods; to consume fish, especially oily fish, at least twice a week; to limit intake of saturated fat, cholesterol, alcohol, sodium & sugar and avoid trans-fatty acids. Pregnant women should  be counseled to avoid eating fish with the potential for the highest level of mercury contamination.

Weight maintenance
Women should maintain or lose weight through an of appropriate balance of physical activity, caloric intake and formal behavioral programs when indicated to maintain or achieve  an appropriate body weight.