Heart Attack & Women

Coronary heart disease is also a woman’s disease, not a man’s disease in disguise - Bernadine Healy MD, 1991

Heart Attack & Women
Heart Attack & Women

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‘I Had No Idea I Was Having a Heart Attack’: For Women, the Signals Often Aren’t Clear


On a sunny day in Bellevue, Wash., in June 2011, I had just completed a workout class when I experienced a bizarre sensation of intense, full-body muscle fatigue. I broke into a bone-chilling sweat. My upper left arm throbbed, a deep ache next to the bone. I was heaving for air at a rapid clip. I grew nauseated. A fist was pressing through my chest to my spine. I was 56 years old, an exercise enthusiast, a nonsmoker and a retired cardiac-care nurse. And yet I had no idea that I was having a heart attack.

It felt nothing like I’d imagined. It turns out that it’s hard to recognize a heart attack as it happens. What I didn’t understand until much later was that a deposit of plaque…

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Resources

  ‘I Had No Idea I Was Having a Heart Attack’: For Women, the Signals Often Aren’t Clear

A retired cardiac-care nurse didn’t recognize her own symptoms. Neither did the first responders. It’s a problem that can have fatal consequences.

My Life in Red

I am not a specialist, doctor, nurse, or exercise physiologist. I am not a chef or a nutritionist. I have no medical training whatsoever. I’m just a person who’s had a heart attack and who is living with cardiovascular disease. I am an active patient engaged in learning about my own disease. I keep up with the news and with studies. Sometimes they relate to me, or make me think, or make me happy or angry or inspired. I have opinions and I write about them here. I might even recommend something — a recipe, an exercise plan — but I will never put myself out there as a medical expert.

Go Red for Women

Go Red For Women is bringing the faces of heart disease to living rooms across the country this fall. Untold Stories Of The Heart, a television special featuring Marie Osmond, and NBC''s Hoda Kotb will focus on real women''s stories of struggle, success and support.

Heart Sisters

All about women and heart disease - our #1 killer - from the unique perspective of CAROLYN THOMAS, a Mayo Clinic-trained women's health advocate, heart attack survivor, blogger, speaker.

Women's Heart Foundation

The Women's Heart Foundation, the only Non-Governmental Organization that designs and implements demonstration projects for the prevention of heart disease.

WomenHeart

WomenHeart is the only patient-led national non-profit organization that educates and advocates for the 8 million American women living with heart disease. With 16,000 members and 50 local support groups, WomenHeart gives women heart patients and physicians a platform to spread the common message of early detection, accurate diagnosis and proper treatment so all women can lead healthier lives.

Healthy Heart Guide

Heart attack symptoms in women are often different than those of men, and as such women should learn the specific signs of a heart attack.

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