Dr Anbarasu's Dairy - Women and Heart Attacks

Women and Heart Attacks

The recent episode of Sushmita Sen having a heart attack and an emergency Stenting to her blocked Coronary Artery has brought an age old discussion to the centre stage.

HEART ATTACKS IN YOUNG AND MIDDLE AGED WOMEN


When we were in Medical school, we were taught that women were immune to  Ischaemic Heart diseases due to the protection offered by hormones.

This is no longer true. We as Heart specialists not infrequently see young and middle aged women coming in with heart attacks and blockage of coronary arteries. 

A study by Indian Cardiologists from Jaipur states that between year 2000 and 2017, the annual mortality due to heart attacks rose from 8.5 lakh to 15.4 lakh, with the number of women dying rising from 3.2 to 6.2 lakh. The rise among men did not reflect such an alarming rate of rise. 

Reasons for such alarming rise are Obesity, Diabetes, life style and oral infections.


The incidence of central obesity among women is quite high in the previous and current generations. This is more marked in women after their child birth and when they cross 30 years. The extent of physical activities is also quite less among women in their middle age. Sparing a few subsets, the amount of physical exertion and the number of steps taken (as counted by Google Fit) by Indian Women is far less than their male counter part. 

An average middle aged woman's carbohydrate intake is 20-40% more than her male counterpart, this is specially more pronounced in Indian House wives. On a personal note, the author has noticed that the  HbA1c (denoting the control of diabetes) of female patients is quite high compared to male patients and the average HbA1c is above 9.0 for the female subset.

With more and more women engaging into the work force, work life balance of women is grossly compromised. Working women have to balance out between profession life and house hold chores with not much contribution from the men folks. Professions like IT and Media are quite demanding and target oriented with significant stress levels which takes a huge toll on the physical and mental health of women. Working odd hours and competing against the millions of years old of circadian rhythm leads to a lot of hormonal and health issues leading on the increased heart related issued among women.

More and more evidence of oral health directly related to heart illness is emerging. Poor oral hygiene and oral infections related to high carbohydrate and sugar in the diet is an unrecognised contributor or heart ailments. The high carb and sugar in diet is directly proportional to work and life style issues as well.

The Remedy

Regular Health check-ups

Healthy Diet

Healthy Work-Life balance

Adequate management of family and work related stress

Maintain adequate Body Mass Index

Regular walks of 30-40 minutes at least 5 days a week

Light floor exercises and Regular Yoga

Dental review for periodontal issues

Lipid Profile and HbA1c - once a year

Inspite of Sushmita's heart attack and her angioplasty, it's really appreciable the way she has bounced back to normalcy.

Lessons learnt from Sushmita's heart attack:


Immediate attention of symptoms.

Proper expert guided treatment.

Bounce back to normalcy under medical guidance.




 

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