Latest Heart New Center

What increases my chances for getting heart and cardiovascular disease?

Many things can put a woman at risk for heart and cardiovascular disease. The more risk factors (or things that increase risk) a woman has, the greater the chance that she will develop heart or cardiovascular disease.

There are some factors that you can’t control such as getting older, family health history, and race. But you can do something about the three biggest risk factors for heart and cardiovascular disease - smoking, high blood pressure, and high blood cholesterol. Stopping smoking will reduce your risk and you can get help, through support groups, special behavior change programs, and medication, to quit.

High blood pressure and high blood cholesterol can be controlled through diet, exercise, and medication. Talk with your health care provider about developing a plan for heart and cardiovascular health.

Studies have shown that physical inactivity adds to a person’s risk for getting heart and cardiovascular disease. People who are not active are twice as likely to develop heart and cardiovascular disease compared to those who are more active. Excess body weight in women is linked with coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and death from heart-related causes. The more overweight you are, the higher your risk for heart disease.

Diabetes, sometimes referred to as high blood sugar, is a serious condition that raises a woman’s risk for heart and cardiovascular disease. Women with diabetes have a greater risk of heart disease and stroke than do women without diabetes. Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity often go hand-in-hand, raising a person’s risk for heart disease. And, diabetes has been found to double the risk of a second heart attack in women but not in men.

Being around tobacco smoke for large amounts of time, or all the time, can increase a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease, even if you do not smoke. Today’s low-dose birth control pills carry a much lower risk of heart disease and stroke than the higher-dose earlier pills did. But this is not the case for women who smoke or who have high blood pressure.

Control Cholesterol

You can also talk with your health care provider about what you can do to help control your cholesterol, including:

getting your cholesterol checked, understanding what the numbers mean;

controlling your weight;

following a treatment program your health care provider prescribes (such as medication and cutting back on foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol);

exercising regularly (for 30 minutes, most days of the week);

quitting smoking.

What is an arrhythmia? Can you have a heart arrhythmia without having heart or cardiovascular disease?

Most people have felt their heart beat very fast, felt a fluttering in their chest, or noticed that their heart skipped a beat. Almost everyone has also felt dizzy, faint, or out of breath or had chest pains at one time or another.

While these experiences of heart arrhythmias (a change in the regular beat of the heart) can create anxiety, they are, for most people, harmless. As adults age, they are more likely to get arrhythmias. Only a very small number of people have arrhythmias that are dangerous.

Don’t panic if you have a few flutters or your heart races once in a while. If you have questions about your heart rhythm or symptoms, talk with your health care provider.

What are the signs of heart attack?

Know that not everyone gets all of the following warning signs of heart attack. And, sometimes these signs can go away and return. Treatments are most effective if given within one hour of when the attack begins. If you have any of these symptoms, call 911 right away!

The signs of heart attack include:

Chest discomfort or uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing, or pain in the center of the chest that lasts longer than a few minutes, or comes and goes.

Spreading pain to one or both arms, back, jaw, or stomach.

Cold sweats and nausea.

As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to have some of the other warning signs, particularly shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting and back or jaw pain.

How does high blood cholesterol affect my risk for heart and cardiovascular disease?

Over 25 percent of Americans have blood cholesterol levels high enough to put them at risk for heart disease. Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in all parts of the body. It makes cell membranes, some hormones, and Vitamin D. Cholesterol comes from two sources: your body and the food you eat. Your liver makes all the cholesterol your body needs. Eating too much cholesterol in animal foods like meats, whole milk dairy products, egg yolks, poultry, and fish can make your cholesterol go up. However, saturated fat in your diet is the main culprit that causes your cholesterol to rise.

Cholesterol travels through the blood in packages called lipoproteins. Low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) are two types of lipoproteins. LDL is often called the “bad” type of cholesterol because it can cause buildup and blockage in the arteries that carry blood to your heart. HDL is known as “good” cholesterol because it helps remove cholesterol from the blood, preventing buildup and blockage in the arteries. The higher your cholesterol, the greater your risk for heart disease.

From the time we turn 20 years old, our blood cholesterol levels start to rise. From age 40, they rise sharply and increase until about age 60. Being overweight and physically inactive also can raise your level of bad (LDL) cholesterol and lower your level of good (HDL) cholesterol.

Family history (genes) can also affect how your body makes and handles cholesterol. High blood cholesterol is an important risk factor for heart disease that you can help control with diet, exercise (which will increase HDL and lower LDL), and quitting smoking. In some cases, your health care provider might prescribe cholesterol-lowering medication.