1) Heart disease is the number one killer of women, surpassing cancer, with symptoms often being more vague in women such as shortness of breath, abdominal discomfort, fatigue, and back/neck pain. 2) The root causes of heart disease - diet, lack of exercise, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol - remain the same for both men and women. 3) Advances in cardiac equipment and procedures have helped reduce door-to-balloon times and save more heart attack victims, but prevention through lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, improving diet and exercise habits, and managing medical conditions still remains a challenge.

1. Women, Take Heart
You Can Help Yourself Prevent Heart Disease
by Max Zimmerman
Dade City News
Women have achieved parity with men in one field but it isn’t one they want
to share — heart disease.
This month, the American Heart Association and a local cardiac surgeon are
reaching out to women with an urgent plea to pay attention to heart disease
symptoms that may be lurking just ahead.
“Statistics show that the number one killer of women these days is heart
attack,” said cardiologist Dr. Huy Khuu. “And one in for women will have
some sort of cardiac event.”
Cancer is the second leading cause of death for women.
And while women may exhibit different symptoms than men, Khuu listed
the root causes that remain the same, “Diet, lack of exercise, smoking,
diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol.”
The fact that Americans are living longer makes us more susceptible to heart
disease and Khuu reports that it is showing up more frequently in older
folks.
In the past, the symptoms that men would experience when suffering a heart
attack — suchas chest discomfortor intense pressure in the chest — seemed
to pass as the ‘norm’ for someone suffering from an attack.
Women, however, experience symptoms that can appear to be much more
vague than men.
“It could be shortness of breath,” that a female patient is reporting, “but a lot
of things can cause shortness of breath, not just heart attacks.”
Other symptoms can include abdominal discomfort such as persistent nausea
or a sense of heartburn; lightheadedness or dizziness; unusual fatigue; and
sharp pain in the upper back, jaw, neck or shoulder.
Khuu said that two-thirds of women have reported that they did not report
any symptoms to indicate there was a problem.
“Sometimes you have to work ‘outside the box,’ you don’talways have that
textbook description,” Khuu said of diagnosing heart attacks in women.
Maybe it’s because women experience different symptoms than men do that
the cardiac issue has not generated more awareness among female patients
when they talk to their doctors.Untreated coronary heart disease can lead to
heart failure, irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias), and heart attacks.
The doctorgives much credit to the advanced equipment that Bayfront
Health that can rapidly locate an obstruction in the artery and open it up so
the patient can survive.

2. “The equipment that has transformed over the last 10 to 20 years has made
us more efficient in what we’re doing,” the doctorsaid, and it creates a
standard Khuu referred to as ‘door-to-balloontime’.
It refers to the time the cardiac patient comes through the emergency
entrance to the time a balloon is inserted and the patient begins to stabilize.
An EKG allows the surgeon to determine where the problem is located —
the front, back or side of the heart — and be able to fix the problem much
faster than a decade ago.
But despite the technological advances in saving heart attack victims, the
progress on prevention remains an ongoing battle.
“Think about what your risks are,” Khuu said. “Are you a diabetic? Do you
have hypertension? Do you have cholesterol issues? Do you smoke? Are you
inactive? Are you overweight? Are you eating healthy?”
If you answer ‘yes,’ to any of the questions, or if you have a family history
of heart disease, Khuu prescribes a visit to your doctorto talk about any
issues.
Improving diet and exercise may seem to be the most difficult for the
average harried American, given the pace and demands of everyday life. It’s
important to get out there are modify your risk factors. If you have risk
factors, “seek help.
“If you’re smoking; quit smoking. If your diabetes is out of control; you
need to rein it in. If your cholesterol is high; you might need to be on special
diets,” or medications, and “get your blood pressure under control,” Khuu
said.
He puts special emphasis on cardiovascular exercise.
“At least 30 minutes every day, [or] three to five days a week. You can’t do
anything about your genetics; you can’t do anything about your family
history,” Khuu said. “But the other stuff you can do something about.
“You got to make exercise part of your life … if you take time to eat, then
you’ve got time to exercise every day. If you make it part of your day, then
it’s not something extra that you have to do.”
Following his general medical education Khuu was drawn to cardiology
partly because of the immediate results that could be achieved through life-
saving procedures.
“Cardiology was a field that I could help people real quick,” Khuu said.
“When you’re successfulit really pays of and gives you a special feeling that
you really did something for somebody.”
He didn’t have to think back too far to give an example.

3. “Two days ago I had a guy who was attending a wedding in town and he had
a heart attack [and] he was brought here. He had an artery that was 100
percent occluded,”Khuu said. “I opened it up; he’s doing well.”