LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) — Lima Memorial Health System staff are sending a strong message to women about the importance of heart health.
Friday marked Wear Red for Women Day, and staff members donned red attire for a group photo to raise awareness about heart disease, the leading cause of death among women in the United States.
Women can experience heart attack symptoms differently than men. Symptoms may include pain in the back, jaw or neck, unusual fatigue and shortness of breath. These warning signs can occur without the chest pain more commonly associated with heart attacks in men.
Cardiologists say symptoms that appear during physical activity and ease with rest should not be ignored, and patients should talk with their doctor about possible heart problems.
“We've got so many wonderful ways of testing for that these days, things like the calcium score, where you we do a CAT scan, and we can look for calcium in the region of the coronaries. If that number is high, you need to see somebody and get it checked out,” said Dr. Pamela Gardner, a cardiologist at Lima Memorial Health System.
For years, heart disease was often viewed as a condition that primarily affected men, but doctors say women must remain vigilant about potential symptoms.
“So age wise, women tend to be about 5, 10 years later than men on the scale of when this sort of stuff happens, although I had a 21-year-old that smoked like his chimney and had a heart attack. So, let's stop get rid of the bad habits, and really think our hearts are just as vulnerable and just as precious,” adds Dr. Gardner.
Gardner says reducing the risk of heart disease starts with eliminating unhealthy habits such as smoking, excessive alcohol use, poor diet and lack of physical activity.
