Sunday, October 19, 2008

In women, heart-attack signs often misleading

"Nanette Morrow was a busy 36-year-old mother of two and high-profile Pima County prosecutor when the heart attack hit. It was sudden and very unexpected. Like many women with heart disease, Morrow did not show typical signs of having a heart attack and was so young that she says even the paramedics who came to her house did not recognize her symptoms. She did not have high blood pressure, and had no strong family history of heart disease. She wasn't a big drinker. Her only real risk was a habit of occasional smoking that began about 10 years ago. But Morrow is not an anomaly. Heart disease is the top killer of American women. Nine-thousand American women under age 45 suffer heart attacks every year and a 2007 study by Northwestern University researchers found that cardiovascular disease is on the rise among women in that age group" - Arizona Daily Star

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