Doctor raises heart disease awareness for American Heart Month
National Jewish Health (NJH) is raising awareness about heart disease as we enter American Heart Month.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women across the United States, according to NJH. It also accounts for a third of maternal deaths.
Conditions often develop in healthy young women who are so focused on the health of their child, that being proactive about their own heart health is not top of mind.
Doctor Minisha Kochar says heart conditions that go unseen can become life-threatening if not quickly diagnosed.
“Women have different biology, risk factors, and symptoms of heart disease than men, and pregnant and postpartum women, in particular, are going through a critical time in their lives when their heart is working overtime and they have a lot of cardiac stress,” said Dr. Kochar. “It’s important to recognize developing issues early, yet many women and physicians confuse telltale signs of heart disease in women as normal symptoms of being pregnant or having a newborn at home.”
Preeclampsia is one of these issues. It’s a blood pressure condition that affects about 5% of pregnancies while increasing the lifelong risk of heart disease by 25%.
To learn more about heart disease, visit the National Jewish Health website.
