Even though more women today are aware of their risk for heart disease, women still seem to be doing worse with this health problem than men do.
According to the American College of Cardiology, two times the number of women (12%) than men (6%) end up dying at the hospital after a heart attack.[1]
And even when women survive the initial attack and hospital stay, the American Heart Association reports that one year after a heart attack, women under 55 tend to fare worse than men. They tend to have poorer mental and physical functioning, lower standards of living, and more chest pain.[2]
Certainly, how care is administered also factors into women’s poor experience when fighting heart disease. Doctors and hospitals are putting more time and attention into trying to developing ways to treat women that bring better results.
But the biggest solution isn’t with the researchers or hospitals. It lies with women . . . The measures that seem to have the most impact in preventing heart disease are what you can do yourself in your own life.
Stress Seems To Attack Women’s Hearts In Particular
The biggest lifestyle change you can make to save your heart is to reduce the evil ogre of stress.
By most accounts, women get the lion’s share of stress in this world . . . According to a recent survey, more women (21%) tend to feel stress worried, anxious, nervous and stressed on a daily or weekly basis than men (16%).[3] And preliminary research hints that women may be more sensitive to stress hormones than men are.[4]
But not only do women experience more stress in their lives on average. It seems that this stress affects women’s hearts differently from men’s hearts. Dr. Viola Vaccarino has been looking at this pattern for a while. In a recent study she compared the blood flow to the heart in both men and women when under stress. The study participants were all men and women who had gone through a heart attack previously. The participants had to recall a stressful event in their lives and then give a 3 minute talk about this even to an intimidating group of people in white lab coats. To raise the stress level even higher, they were told they would be evaluated on their speech.[5]
The researchers were stunned to see that the women under 50 showed twice the amount of reduced blood flow to the heart as men. Bottom line, when they felt stress, you could see it in their blood flow. Their vessels had constricted and the blood flow had dwindled significantly.
Dr. Vaccarino notes that this matches some of what she’s seeing in other research . . . Men usually have a heart attack because a blood clot blocks blood flow. But as for women . . . it seems women’s heart attacks often result from stress-induced reduced blood flow to the heart.
Reduce Stress And Save Your Heart From Attacks
So how can you prevent the stress in your life from taking your heart out of commission?
The best thing is to remove stressors from your life. But it’s not always easy to ditch that loathsome commute when your work is on the other end . . . or stop your 3 year old from melting down in the supermarket . . .
However, you can do some things to help your body contend with stress better. Meditation, exercise and taking a soothing hot bath in the evening all offer stress relief. When it comes specifically to shifting how your heart responds to stress, research also indicates the herb eleuthero can make a noticeable difference, particularly in women.
Eleuthero has long been used traditionally to help the body adjust to stressors in a healthy way. A recent clinical trial also showed that when women took eleuthero before undergoing a stressful event not only did it reduce their heart rate on average by 40%, it also reduced systolic blood pressure by 60%![6]
Prevention Does More Than Intervention
Heart disease is a scary prospect – especially when the long-term prognosis is so much worse for women.
But it’s not inevitable. Women can safeguard themselves by taking certain measures. As new research indicates, reducing stress can make a significant difference when it comes to women’s health.
To learn more about how to protect yourself from heart disease, please go to https://www.sunchlorellausa.com/blog/heart-health-tips-women.
Sources:
[1] American College of Cardiology. “Women don’t get to hospital fast enough during heart attack.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 March 2015.
[2] American Heart Association. “Young women fare worse than young men after heart attack.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2 June 2014.
[3]QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Who Often Felt Worried, Nervous, or Anxious,* by Sex and Age Group — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2010–2011. CDC Mortality and Morbidity Statistics. March 15, 2013: 62(10). 197.
[4] D A Bangasser et al. Sex differences in corticotropin-releasing factor receptor signaling and trafficking: potential role in female vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology. Molecular Psychiatry, 2010
[5]Emotional stress and heart disease in women: an interview with Dr. Viola Vaccarino. National Heart, Blood And Lung Institute website.
[6] F. Facchinetti et al. Eleutherococcus senticosus reduces cardiovascular stress response in healthy subjects: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Stress and Health, February 2002; Volume 18, Issue 1. pages 11–17.
About Michael E. Rosenbaum, MD
Dr. Rosenbaum is a 30-year veteran and widely recognized pioneer in the field of nutritional medicine, alternative healthcare and medical acupuncture. As one of America’s most respected experts in natural health and healing, Dr. Rosenbaum has been a frequent lecturer to professional medical groups and has participated in numerous television and radio talk shows. He is also an esteemed member of the Sun Chlorella Advisory Board, which helps guide the medical innovation behind Sun Chlorella products.
About Sun Chlorella USA
Sun Chlorella USA offers the finest quality chlorella products for anti-aging, weight maintenance, energy, heart, brain & digestive system, as well as overall health and wellness for both people and pets. Want to learn more health secrets? Get a free copy of our report, “Why Didn’t My Doctor Tell Me About This?!” This eye-opening report, created by 5 pioneering natural health experts, reveal nutritional secrets that can change your life. You can get a free copy at our website. Also, for special offers, news and updates, follow us on Twitter at @sunchlorellausa or ‘Like’ us on Facebook.
