February is American Heart Month, and a new survey finds some worrying information on women’s heart health.
A survey by the Women’s Heart Alliance found troubling trends around misdiagnosis and a lack of education about women’s heart health. Dr. Holly Anderson is the medical advisor for the alliance and says many women have received the wrong diagnosis.
“Many of them have been diagnosed with panic attacks or anxiety or deconditioning or acid reflux,” Anderson said. “It’s unfortunate that awareness that heart disease is a number one killer of women is low even among practitioners, so they don’t really think about heart disease when women present to them, especially young women.”
Anderson says more women ages 29 to 50 are getting heart disease. It’s important to note the signs of a heart attack in a woman are often different than in men and include arm pain, neck or back pain, nausea, and sweating and chest pain.
