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Women of color are more likely to have a heart attack than their white counterparts. In fact, heart disease is often the number one killer of women of color. Yet many African American and Latina women are unaware of the warning signs that they are at risk for a heart attack and stroke.
"African American and Hispanic women have higher prevalence rates of high blood pressure, obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome than white women," said Dr. Lori Mosea, who conducted the study on females of color and heart attacks. She is lead author of an analysis of 1,024 local respondents to evaluate trends in women's awareness, perception and knowledge of cardiovascular diseases. Results were recently published in a leading medical publication.
"Even though awareness among African Americans still lags behind whites, there have been substantial gains," said Mosea. "The improvements are much lower among Hispanics, and we need to pay attention to that because they are the country's fastest growing ethnic group."
Awareness is only the beginning to combating heart disease. Dr. Nanette K. Wenger, professor at Emory University School of Medicine and co-author of the new guidelines for cardiovascular disease, pointed to the need to make changes in one's dietary and physical activity habits to reverse the negative trend.
"Lifestyle changes are a very effective way to substantially reduce risk, but to make these changes a woman must first feel she is at risk," said Wenger. "Knowledge gives a woman the power to take charge of her health."
Mosea reiterates that more women need to know they are at risk. In her survey she found "only 13 percent of respondents cited heart disease" as one of their own greatest health risks. "This indicates a disconnect between actual risk and a perceived health threat that they might act upon," she said.
The survey also showed that 63 percent of respondents said they were confused about how hormone therapy affects a women's health. The American Heart Association recommends against using hormone therapy to reduce heart disease risk. The association bases its position on results from two large, controlled prospective studies. They are the Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS) and the Women's Health Initiative (WHI). Both of these found that hormone therapy failed to protect the heart and might even increase heart attack risk during the first year of taking it. One in five of the women surveyed reported knowing the results.
Furthermore while 89 percent of all women knew that treatments exist that can break up blood clots to reduce damage in the first few hours of the onset of a heart attack or stroke symptoms, awareness in Latina women was 79 percent and in African American women 84 percent. This lagged behind the knowledge of white women which was 92 percent.
So, what are some of the symptoms women should be aware of that they are in imminent danger of becoming a heart attack statistic? Dr. Ida Mazza and cardiac physician assistant hosts the "Ask a Cardiologist" question and answer session.
Among the signs are chest pressure, pain in the jaw that travels to the neck, and numbness or tingling in body parts. Weaver said that some of these symptoms are similar to having a stroke. Mazza added that having a persistent pain in the middle of the chest is a strong symptom as well as pain along either arm, not just the left arm, becoming short of breath when one has not exerted oneself, or even mild indigestion.
"Women have more of what we call silent heart attacks," Mazza continued. "Sometimes it's only a feeling of having gas or of numbness in the hand. We all have to be in tune with our bodies to know what feels normal to us. If we get a (new) symptom or feel something we've never felt before, if our blood pressure reading is different from what is normal for our body, and if we feel differently."
Weaver added that most heart attack patients have been having warning symptoms for quite a while. He warns that if one even suspects that they are having a heart attack, perhaps having chest pains, numbness in either arm or the like, to "not be embarrassed" to go to the emergency room.
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