Women, Take HeartYou Can Help Yourself Prevent Heart Diseaseby Max ZimmermanDade City NewsWomen 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 — such as chest discomfort or 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’t always 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 doctor gives 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.

“The equipment that has transformed over the last 10 to 20 years has made us more efficient in what we’re doing,” the doctor said, and it creates a standard Khuu referred to as ‘door-to-balloon time’.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 doctor to 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 successful it 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.

“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.”