This week's Facts Friday Sarah shares a fact from Health Central.
Heart attacks in women are harder to diagnose then in men. While their hearts may look the same, there are actual physiological differences that often affect symptoms when a heart attack strikes.
Men experience: crushing chest pain, shortness of breath; pain in other parts of the upper body. Women can experience that, but often they are subtler symptoms.
Women experience: vague symptoms like fatigue, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, sweating, pain in places like the jaw, either arm, shoulder, back, or stomach.
It's important to note that these symptoms can happen 3-4 weeks before the heart attack strikes.
More women than men die in the aftermath of a heart attack, according to a study published in Circulation. This may be because women tend to wait longer before going to the hospital, perhaps because their symptoms are vague or don’t seem life-threatening.
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