Heart Disease and Women -- Educational PSA Video. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; The Heart Truth; The Heart Truth is a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Designed to warn women of their #1 health threat, The Heart Truth created and introduced the Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 to deliver an urgent wake-up call to American women. The Red Dress reminds women of the need to protect their heart health, and inspires them to take action. Producer: National Institutes of Health; Keywords: hhs.gov; public_safety. Creative Commons license: Public Domain; Although many people think of heart disease as a man's problem, women can and do get heart disease. In fact, heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States. It is also a leading cause of disability among women. The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart itself. This is called coronary artery disease and happens slowly over time. It's the major reason people have heart attacks. Prevention is important: two-thirds of women who have a heart attack fail to make a full recovery. The older a woman gets, the more likely she is to get heart disease. But women of all ages should be concerned about heart disease. All women can take steps to prevent it by practicing healthy lifestyle habits. Heart disease is a number of abnormal conditions affecting the heart and the blood vessels in the heart. Types of heart disease include: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type and is the leading cause of heart attacks. When you have CAD, your arteries become hard and narrow. Blood has a hard time getting to the heart, so the heart does not get all the blood it needs. CAD can lead to: Angina. Angina is chest pain or discomfort that happens when the heart does not get enough blood. It may feel like a pressing or squeezing pain, often in the chest, but sometimes the pain is in the shoulders, arms, neck, jaw, or back. It can also feel like indigestion (upset stomach). Angina is not a heart attack, but having angina means you are more likely to have a heart attack.
Heart attack. A heart attack occurs when an artery is severely or completely blocked, and the heart does not get the blood it needs for more than 20 minutes. Heart failure occurs when the heart is not able to pump blood through the body as well as it should. This means that other organs, which normally get blood from the heart, do not get enough blood. It does NOT mean that the heart stops. Signs of heart failure include: Shortness of breath (feeling like you can't get enough air); Swelling in feet, ankles, and legs; Extreme tiredness; Heart arrhythmias are changes in the beat of the heart. Most people have felt dizzy, faint, out of breath or had chest pains at one time. These changes in heartbeat are, for most people, harmless. As you get older, you are more likely to have arrhythmias. Don't panic if you have a few flutters or if your heart races once in a while. If you have flutters AND other symptoms such as dizziness or shortness of breath (feeling like you can't get enough air), call 911 right away. At the top of the list of risk factors that men and women share is smoking, the most dangerous killer for both sexes, followed by diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, excess weight and physical inactivity. Some factors, however, seem to affect women more severely than men. In fact, smoking and diabetes completely counteract whatever protective benefits a woman normally enjoys before menopause. Also, women are more likely to be overweight, less likely to exercise and appear to be affected more adversely by stress. Of course, neither men nor women can do anything about their age or the genes they were born with. (If your father had a heart attack before 55 or your mother had a heart attack before 65, you should pay special attention to your heart health.) And it's still unclear why heart disease seems to strike men and women so differently. Structurally, their hearts and arteries are basically the same; women's hearts are smaller, but in proportion to their bodies. So doctors are pretty sure that any differences are matters of degree rather than kind.
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litebug12345 2 years ago
@litebug12345 - thank you for watching and for your comments!
rosaryfilms 2 months ago