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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : October 8, 2014 11:06 AM IST
Aakriti Gupta, an Indian-origin researcher at the Yale School of Medicine, has found that women have longer hospital stays and are more likely than men to die in the hospital after a heart attack. 'Younger women are a vulnerable yet understudied group with worse cardiac risk profiles and worse outcomes after a heart attack as compared with younger men,' Gupta contended.
In the study, Gupta and her team analysed 230,684 hospitalisations for heart attack in patients age 30 to 54 in a national database from 2001 to 2010. The study found that heart attack hospitalisation rates for patients under age 55 have not declined as quickly as they have for Medicare-age patients, which have seen a 20 percent drop. (Read: Why are women more prone to heart disease?)
Men were more likely to have high cholesterol while women, especially black women, were more likely to also have hypertension, diabetes and heart failure. 'This shows that we need to raise awareness of the importance of controlling cardiovascular risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking in younger patients,' Gupta said.
Younger women may benefit from more aggressive control of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, including early identification and treatment of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, smoking and diabetes, researchers concluded. The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (Read: Heart attack symptoms everyone should know)
What is a heart attack?
A heart attack also referred to as a myocardial infarction (MI), coronary thrombosis or coronary occlusion. It usually occurs when the blood supply to the heart is blocked suddenly due to complete blockage of the artery supplying blood to the heart. This causes the heart muscle cells to die. The blockage of artery is often caused by plaque formation (deposition and hardening of fatty substances and cholesterol on the walls of arteries) resulting in coronary heart disease (CHD). If left untreated it can be fatal. Some of the symptoms of heart attack include feeling a tight band around the chest, shooting pain up and down the left side of your body,anxiety, cough, fainting, heavy pressure, palpitations, shortness of breath and sweating. Most people tend to ignore the initial symptoms of heart attack which causes greater damage to the heart. If you have thesewarning signs of heart attack, you should call your local emergency number right away. You can also take a look at these 9 expert tips to prevent heart attacks and also read why more and more women are suffering from heart disease. This section will also answer your common queries like why heart attacks are common in winters and how exercise helps in lowering the risk of heart attacks.
How can one prevent the onset of this disease?
Making lifestyle changes is the most effective way to prevent having a heart attack (or having another one). Here are the main steps you can take to help prevent a heart attack:
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With inputs from IANS
Photo source: Getty images
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