"Red Face Killer" turns out to be a heart attack.

When it comes to women's health, everyone always focuses on breast cancer. In fact, there is still a disease, the period of "quiet", it is easy to be ignored, but the power is fierce, it can be described as "red killer", it is heart disease.

"Red Face Killer" turns out to be a heart attack.

In the United States, there are approximately 435,000 women with heart attacks each year, and the number of deaths is even 6 times more than breast cancer! Among these female patients, over 70% have experienced early warning symptoms such as “extreme fatigue” and “dyspnea”. But it is a pity that they do not know that this is the symptom of a heart attack. Moreover, the medical profession is not fully aware that heart disease actually has a problem of gender differences. And this point, a study by the West Bardarina's "Barbara Streisand Women's Heart Center" made important findings.

When Barbara Fleeman was in his 50s, his body's indicators were normal, regular fitness, and amateur life. The only uncomfortable situation is that she often feels chest pain, cough, shortness of breath, and is easily exhausted.

In the past two years, she has seen many doctors, but every time the ECG and blood tests are normal. She thought it was a heart problem, but some doctors told her that it was a gastrointestinal problem, some said it was a sinus problem, and some even said that she was thinking about it... Finally, she was full of doubts and found Sida Saina. Barra Streisand Women's Heart Center."


The West Dasina Medical Center in Los Angeles, USA, officially established the "Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center" in 2008, focusing on the research and treatment of female heart disease. Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, Director of the Center for Medicine, directed his team to make an important finding about gender differences.


The cause of heart attack is different for men and women, and women are more likely to be ignored.

The symptoms of a woman's heart attack are different from those of a man because of the different causes of a sexual heart attack. In addition, the symptoms of a woman's heart attack are not obvious, and it is easily overlooked by patients and doctors, and even causes avoidable death.

After Barbara Freeman's visit, the doctor immediately performed a magnetic resonance imaging of her heart and found a Coronary Microvascular Disease (CMD). This is a condition that occurs on the smallest arteries of the heart and is more common in women and cannot be detected if routinely examined.

After further cardiac catheterization and blood angiography, the doctor found that Barbara's CMD was caused by endothelial dysfunction, which means her inner wall of the artery was thin and the blood flow to the heart was insufficient. Under the direction of Dr. Bailey Merz, Barbara treats and prevents it by taking appropriate medications and exercising regularly. Now 59-year-old, she has finally recovered her past glory.

Women with these symptoms need to be wary of heart disease.

"A person is holding his chest in pain, and the electrocardiogram shows a blood clot in the artery." This is a common heart attack scene we have in movies. But Dr. Bailey Merz said, “Like this heart attack with chest pain, only two-thirds of men will experience it, and women are fewer, only one-third.”

For women, the symptoms of a heart attack are not obvious, and sometimes it is really ignored by the patient himself or even by a doctor. Symptoms such as "indigestion, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue" are often mistakenly thought to be caused by heartburn, overeating, stress or musculoskeletal pain.

Dr. Bairey Merz said that pain in the back, neck, chin or throat, indigestion, heartburn, nausea, vomiting, and extreme fatigue and difficulty breathing are common symptoms of female heart attacks. Neglecting these symptoms can be a serious hazard. Health, even "may lead to death."

Everyone needs to be aware of heart disease prevention. Dr. Bailey Merz recommends that women have regular heart tests and diagnose them in time. Because of this, “doctors can detect risk factors to diagnose whether women need to take medication every day to reduce the risk of heart attack.” At the same time, we must regulate heart health by not smoking, exercising properly, regulating cholesterol and blood pressure levels.

Recognize gender differences in heart disease and care for more female patients

Dr. Bairey Merz is not only the medical director of the "Barbara Streisand Women's Heart Center" in West Dasina, but since 1999 she has been working on the evaluation of female ischemic syndrome supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (Women's Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation, WISE for short).

In the early years, everyone regarded the "female heart" as a "small version of the male heart." Because women are still not aware of the gender differences in heart disease, female patients have been paying a painful price. With the efforts of Bailey Merz, it has now been found that the female heart is physically different from the male, and men and women may therefore develop different diseases.

In 2016, Dr. Bariey Merz collaborated with another doctor to launch a series of seminars on gender medicine in West Dasina to provide relevant teaching to colleagues. Topics covered include gender and brain (neuro-sex gender differences), gender differences in the heart, and gender differences in the emergency department. At the same time, in other disease fields, we are looking for medical personnel who can provide gender-disparity expertise, so as to better differentiate and individualize patients with different genders and achieve better therapeutic results.