February is American Heart Month, a time when people are encouraged to focus on their cardiovascular health. Health professionals say heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, who are often misdiagnosed.
Dr. Noel Bairey Merz is an advisor with the nonprofit Women's Heart Alliance and Medical director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center in the Smidt heart institute's Cedar Sinai Medical Center.
She says the situation is even worse for women of color.
“The women of color in the United States suffer disproportionately from what we call preventable risk factors, they then face an uphill battle similar to non-minority women in getting recognized, diagnosed and treated, so it's a little bit of a double whammy,” according to Bairey Merz.” Once identified and treated, women of color do just as well as women that are not of color and they do just as well as men. So that's the irony, is that the detection, the diagnosis and treatment works really well. We know all about heart disease and we know how to treat it.”
She said there are symptoms women should be aware of.
"The symptom indicators are the same so any type of chest discomfort, jaw, arm, pain, stomach upset, fatigue."
The Women's Heart Alliance recently launched the Get Heart Checked PSA campaign to draw attention to the situation, visit GetHeartChecked.org for more information.
