9 Heart Disease Facts Every Woman Needs To Know
Even if you don't have symptoms, you could be at risk.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss (there are calories in wine?)—but not when it comes to heart disease.
Only about half of women recognize heart disease as the number-one killer of women, according to the Centers for Disease Control. One possible explanation: Many women still don't know exactly what heart disease is or what it looks like.
When you think heart attack victim, you may picture an overweight, middle-aged man, gripping the left side of his chest, then falling to the floor.
While, yes, that can happen, women are more likely to suffer from back pain, jaw pain, or nausea before a heart attack, according to the American Heart Association.
It should also be noted that heart disease isn't just heart attacks—it refers to anything that can go wrong in your heart, like getting blocked arteries, Suzanne Steinbaum, D.O., director of women's heart health at the Heart and Vascular Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York previously told Womenshealthmag.com.
The good news in all of this? Heart disease—and even heart attacks—are preventable 80 percent of the time, often just by lifestyle changes, according to the AHA. That means eating healthy, exercising regularly, and ditching cigarettes.
Another layer of protection is just knowing all you can about the disease in general. Here, eight things you probably don't know about the number-one killer of women—but absolutely should.
Krissy is a regular contributor to Prevention, and she also writes for Cosmopolitan, Weight Watchers, Women's Health, FitnessMagazine.com, Self.com, and Shape.com.
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