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Heart disease is the number one cause of death for women in the United States and can affect women of all ages. Despite the prevalence of heart disease in women, most people don’t know how to recognize its symptoms, especially since the symptoms often present differently than in men. The same was true for Linda Kiwit, who suffered a heart attack in January.
Linda is in her fifties and in generally good health. Therefore, I had no idea that the unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms that lasted several days could be the beginning of a heart attack. She is currently continuing her treatment at Frottart and the Medical College of Wisconsin Cardiac Rehabilitation Center. Since her heart attack, Kiwit has made it her mission to share her story in hopes that fewer women will have to go through what she went through.
“I never thought I was going to have a heart attack. I didn’t believe it until I was told it was a heart attack. And it took a lot of things that happened to convince me that it was actually happening. “I did,” Kiewit said.
Kiwit suffered a severe heart attack known as “The Widow.” But her ordeal began as persistent indigestion that didn’t initially faze her. A few days later, Kiewit went for tests at the recommendation of the surgeon who had recently operated on her, and the reality of her symptoms began in earnest.
“It was embarrassing waiting to be seen,” Kiwit admits. “I thought, well, this is ridiculous. They’ll look at me and say I have indigestion, give me prescription-grade antacids and send me home. Well, that didn’t happen. .”
She said what happened at the hospital after doctors realized Kiwit was having a heart attack was “traumatic.”
“First they took my blood pressure and they were concerned. Then they immediately took an ECG. That was so worrying that I thought maybe they had made a mistake and immediately took another ECG. ,” she recalls. “Later, her husband said he turned to the EKG technician. He saw the EKG technician’s face change and knew we were in trouble.”
Dr. Stacey Gardiner is an assistant professor at Frottart and the Medical College of Wisconsin and one of the medical staff members who treated Kiwit. She offers some explanations for the early signs of a heart attack. “For both men and women, it’s important to remember that chest pain, chest tightness, and chest heaviness are still the most common forms of chest discomfort, no matter how you want to describe them.” This is a condition that occurs in both men and women. ”
Listen to Linda Kiewit’s full conversation with Dr. Stacey Gardiner and Lake Effect’s Audrey Nowakowski.
But women have certain symptoms that are different from men’s, including not only indigestion like the one Kiewit experienced, but also extreme fatigue, nausea, and pain in other places like the jaw, back, shoulders, and neck. There is also.
The signs of a heart attack are often different for women, so women often ignore heart attacks or wait longer before seeking treatment. In addition to the wide range of symptoms, Gardiner said medical professionals may not take a woman’s symptoms seriously at first, especially if she doesn’t have many traditional risk factors.
“Historically, much of what we understand about heart disease has been based on studies conducted primarily in middle-aged men,” she explains. “So what we understand about heart disease and how we treat it still doesn’t fully reflect women.”
One of the best things you can do to keep your heart healthy, especially for women, is to understand and minimize the risks associated with heart attacks and get preventative testing. For both men and women, high-risk factors include smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and high cholesterol. For women in particular, risks include gestational diabetes, diabetes and pregnancy, high blood pressure and pregnancy, early menopause, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.
“It’s better to be proactive than reactive, so the best time to actually go to the doctor is when you’re feeling well,” Gardiner says.
Kiewit added: “If I had known I had gestational diabetes.” [is a risk factor] is a perfect example of a conversation I’ve never had before. So just that awareness is very helpful in understanding the potential risks. ”
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