HEALTH WORKS with Dr Austin Sterne

CARRIE Fisher, the Hollywood actress who played Princess Leia from the Star Wars movies, died aged 60 from a heart attack on December 27, 2016.

Her death is a timely reminder that heart disease is still the leading killer of women in many western countries, including Australia.

A heart attack happens when a blood vessel supplying the heart muscle with oxygen suddenly blocks off, causing that part of the heart muscle to die.

Heart disease has for many years been incorrectly considered a condition that mainly affects only men. However, the same number of women die of heart disease as do men in Australia.

In fact heart disease is now killing more women than all the different types of cancers combined (including breast cancer).

Women also tend to fare worse than men following a heart attack in terms of death or serious complications.

Why is heart disease under-diagnosed and under-treated in Australian women?

This is in part because the symptoms of heart disease in women are frequently different than those experienced in men. It may simply be that women or their doctors do not recognise that their symptoms may be heart related.

Whereas men typically experience central chest tightness or pain which may spread to the arm, neck or jaw and may be associated with shortness of breath, nausea and sweating, only about one third of women will experience these same symptoms. In contrast, most women's symptoms are far more subtle and may often only include back pain, abdominal pain, palpitations, fatigue, weakness, anxiety or even simply indigestion.

This may be in part because women with heart disease typically experience arterial vasospasm. This is where the blood vessels to the heart suddenly go into spasm and so narrow and block the blood flow to part of the heart with little warning. This is in contrast to men where the blood vessels tend to gradually silt up with cholesterol and block off. In men therefore, there is often a gradual process of blood vessel blockage which creates important early warning symptoms suggesting heart disease for the patient and doctor. The lack of the typical early warning symptoms in women may be why women are more likely than men to die from heart attacks. It is therefore important for all women at risk of heart disease to be aware of these more subtle symptoms.

Alarmingly, about 90% of Australian women have at least one risk factor for heart disease. Risk factors include being overweight, having high cholesterol or high blood pressure, smoking, drinking too much alcohol, having diabetes or a having a family member who has had heart disease before the age of 60.

If you are over 50 and have a family history of heart disease, visit your GP today.

* Dr Austin Sterne is a GP at the Tweed Health for Everyone Super Clinic, 33-35 Corporation Circuit, Tweed Heads South. Visit www.thesc.com.au