Avoid Heart Disease

2023 Author: Leslie Forster | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 07:36

Coronary heart disease was always thought to be more prevalent in men. However, current statistics reveal another truth. Here we inform you what women should know about these, either to prevent or cure them.

When Eva Gómez was in her twenties, she was diagnosed with a heart murmur. The doctor recommended that he be checked regularly, but Eva felt fine, and she waited thirteen years to do it. The news he received then was alarming: in addition to having a valve that was not working well for him, a coronary aneurysm had formed that could burst at any time. It had to be operated on immediately. "I had an active life and ate well, and I never imagined that something like this could happen to me," he explains. “I am a nurse and my patients are my priority. However, I never paid attention to my own health. Occasionally I had palpitations, shortness of breath, fatigue, and in the end my blood pressure also started to rise, "says Eva," but I thought it was stress or that I had to exercise more, or that I was simply getting older. I didn't want to admit that I had a medical problem."

Eva's case is similar to that of many Hispanic women who, sometimes due to misinformation, leading a certain lifestyle or not wanting to accept that they too can get sick, put their lives on the line. The truth is that cardiovascular diseases, long considered as something that only affected men or the elderly, is today the main cause of death among women. If we add to this that Hispanics have a higher incidence of risk than others, it is recommended to know the symptoms and know how to prevent them.

What are they?

Dr. Cristina Rabadán-Diehl, director of the Global Health Office of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), explains that there are several types: those that affect arteries and those that affect the heart.. The most frequent cardiovascular disease among Hispanic women is coronary heart disease, which is the one that causes heart attacks. "The heart attack," explains the doctor, "is the result of a blockage of these coronary arteries and occurs when not enough blood reaches this organ." Arrhythmias and coronary murmurs also move in this same staff.