WHAT DO U MEAN BY HEART DISEASE?

• Heart disease or simply heart disease occurs due to the narrowing or hardening of the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle. This is usually due to plaque build-up (accumulation of fat, cholesterol and other substances) on the inner walls of the arteries. Very often, heart disease lead to a heart attack caused by complete blockage of the artery with plaque. This can be fatal if arterial obstruction prevents vital nutrients and oxygen to the heart.

Risk factors:

• In both men and women, midlife is the period of increased risk because this is where people are more prone to cardiovascular disease risk factors develop. Some of the common risk factors for women are:

• FAMILY HISTORY:  A woman is more likely to develop heart disease as her father or brother had a heart attack before the age of 55, or her mother or sister had one before the age of 65 years.

• DURING MENOPAUS: Another important risk factor is a low level of estrogen after menopause. This occurs as a major threat to the development of cardiovascular disease in smaller arteries.

• STRESS AND DEPRESSION:  Depression or stress affects women more than men of the heart. Because of these emotional states, it becomes difficult to follow a healthy lifestyle and recommended treatments.

• SMOKING:  As with men, smoking is a major risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease in women. It is true that, although it is difficult for some of these risk factors change, it is important to take control of many others such as smoking on the occurrence of these events to occur.