Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide. While traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, smoking, and lack of physical activity are common to both men and women, recent data reveals that the distribution of cardiovascular risk differs between genders.
Historically, myocardial infarction was predominantly associated with men, leading to little or no understanding of its impact on women. Research now highlights significant disparities not only in the levels of risk faced by men and women, but also in how symptoms manifest, treatment responses, and recovery processes differ between the sexes.
For instance, women may experience more subtle or different symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, and nausea, which can be easily overlooked or misdiagnosed, delaying appropriate intervention. Conversely, men often exhibit the classic "elephant on my chest" pain associated with heart attacks, making recognition easier. Biological differences, hormonal influences, and lifestyle patterns also contribute to the variance in risk and outcomes.
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Talking to Moneycontrol, Dr A Ramachandran, MD.Ph.D., D.Sc., FRCP(Lond)., MNAMS., FICP. FRCP (Edin), Chairman/Managing Director at Dr.A.Ramachandran’s Diabetes Hospitals, stresses the importance of understanding these differences for developing personalised prevention, diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies.
Men Carry Higher Calculated Risk Scores while Women experience worse outcomes
To understand the CVD burden, it is crucial to consider Q risk. It is a scoring system that estimates a person's likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease within 10 years by considering factors such as age, diabetes, blood pressure, family history, and cholesterol level. This data assists experts in identifying individuals at higher risk early on, enabling timely preventive care.
What is Q Risk?
Q Risk essentially means the probability of something happening. It’s essential to note that your risk of developing CVD is never zero and naturally increases with age.
Your Q Risk score indicates whether you are at low, moderate, or high risk of developing CVD in the next 10 years.
Current Q risk data shows that men with diabetes have an average cardiovascular risk score of 27.6, significantly higher than the 15.3 score for women. This suggests that men may have nearly double the risk of experiencing major cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks, strokes, or related complications, within a decade compared to women.
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Interestingly, Indian women with cardiovascular disease often have worse outcomes than men despite having lower average risk scores. Factors such as higher rates of obesity and hypertension, atypical symptoms leading to delayed diagnosis, and less aggressive treatment contribute to poorer short- and long-term outcomes.
Call for Gender Sensitive Care
Understanding the gender-specific burden is crucial for reducing the current load, necessitating a gender-sensitive approach to cardiovascular risk evaluation and management.
- For men, emphasis is on early detection and addressing the high-risk score through preventive measures.
- For women, it is equally important to ensure timely diagnosis, appropriate treatment, and regular follow-up care.
There are effective strategies to lower the risk of cardiovascular complications in people with diabetes, critical for preventing cardiac arrest, stroke, and other severe CVD events. These measures range from lifestyle modifications to contemporary medical interventions.
Approaches to reduce risk include:
- Blood sugar control: Ensuring appropriate medication and close monitoring to maintain healthy blood sugar levels is critical.
- Blood pressure and cholesterol control: Use of hypertension control medications and lifestyle changes to reduce heart strain.
- Lifestyle modifications: Addressing key factors such as smoking and adopting a healthy lifestyle, including a balanced diet, regular exercise, and weight management.\
- Routine screening: Early identification of heart disease, especially in individuals with diabetes, requires routine screening. Regular screening and timely diagnostic care are vital for health management strategies to prevent complications and ensure better outcomes.
- Modern therapies: New medications like semaglutide in pill form and injectable, proven by recent trials SOUL and SELECT, significantly reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events by 14 percent and 20 percent respectively, in addition to lowering blood sugar and aiding weight loss. Such modern therapies can be adopted as remedial measures.
While men with diabetes appear to have higher predicted risks for cardiovascular complications, women often experience worse clinical outcomes. It is essential to manage the risk in both genders by incorporating a gender-specific approach and customizing treatment plans accordingly, utilizing advanced therapies.
FAQs on Symptoms of Heart Attack in Women
1. What are the common heart attack symptoms in women?
Women may experience fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, or vomiting, which are often overlooked or misdiagnosed, unlike the chest pain commonly seen in men.
2. Why do heart attack symptoms differ between men and women?
Biological differences, hormonal influences, and lifestyle patterns contribute to the variance in symptoms, risk levels, and outcomes between men and women.
3. How does delayed diagnosis affect women experiencing a heart attack?
Delayed diagnosis due to atypical symptoms can lead to worse outcomes for women, as timely intervention is critical for effective treatment and recovery.
4. Are women at a higher risk of poor outcomes after a heart attack?
Despite lower average risk scores, Indian women with cardiovascular disease often experience worse outcomes than men due to factors like obesity, hypertension, and less aggressive treatment.\
5. What measures can women take to reduce their risk of a heart attack?
Women should focus on blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol control, lifestyle modifications, routine screenings, and considering modern therapies to reduce cardiovascular risk.
Disclaimer: This article, including health and fitness advice, provides generic information and should not be treated as a substitute for professional medical opinion. Always consult a specialist for specific health diagnosis.
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