Cardiovascular Disease Symptoms
and Risk Factors

Cardiovascular Disease in Women: Risk Factors and Prevention Section 3

Women are two times more likely to die from a heart attack than men. The higher complication rates after CABG or angioplasty are there for worrying. Both procedures were originally designed for men by other men and not for women’s smaller hearts and coronary arteries.

Women have different hormone variations and distributions of body fat than men. That women are prescribed medications that are based on research and tested on men is far from ideal. (McCormick & Bunting) The physiological differences between men and women should be considered further.

There are inherited as well as acquired risk factors for myocardial infarction, which can be applied to other heart and cardiovascular diseases. Inherited risk factors can be improved upon with lifestyle change or medical management.

The women that are most at risk for inherited risk factors are those with inherited hypertension, inherited low levels of HDL or high LDL, a family history of heart disease, suffering from type I diabetes, have reached menopause, and aging women.

Acquired risk factors are choices women make on how to live and can be changed. The women that are most at risk for acquired risk factors may have non-inherited hypertension, non-inherited low levels of HDL or high LDL, smokers, inactive lifestyle, 30 percent or more overweight, or experience a great deal of stress. ( Medical University of South Carolina, 2001)

The most preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in women is smoking. It is a significant risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease in both men and women.

Smoking one pack of cigarettes a day increases your risk for coronary heart disease by two and one-half times, and smokers are 5.5 times more likely to be at risk for myocardial infarction, as opposed to nonsmokers. Slone and associates estimate that 70% of myocardial infarctions in women under 50 are due to smoking, in the absence of other risk factors. (Chesney & Nealey, 1996)

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