Cardiovascular Disease Symptoms
and Risk Factors

Cardiovascular Disease in Women: Risk Factors and Prevention Section 8

Personality aspects may also influence cardiovascular disorders. A 1985 study in Göteborg, Sweden by Hallström and associates “indicated that high ratings of passive dependency, neuroticism, experience of strain, grade of mental disorder, and severity of depression were predictive of angina.” (Theorell, 1991, pp. 200-202)

It is therefore important to consider the whole person, including such personality aspects that may be harder to change then lifestyle choices, when looking at risk factors.

Signs of a heart attack include chest discomfort, pain in the center of the chest that last longer than a few minutes, spreading pain to back, jaw, stomach, or one or both arms, nausea, and cold sweats.

Women are more likely to experience back and jaw pain, nausea, and cold sweats than men. Signs of a stroke include numbness in a body part or one side of body, trouble seeing or walking, confusion, sever headache with no cause, nausea or vomiting, and drowsiness. ( Medical University of South Carolina, 2001)

Sometimes there are unfortunately no symptoms but women need to be aware of these symptoms in order to be able to recognize them if they do occur.

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