Stress can cause ‘Broken Heart Syndrome’ in young females

Chandigarh, March 8, 2022: Over 100 female faculty members from Chitkara University, Rajpura attended a health workshop on ‘cardio diseases and women’ to mark International Women's Day on Tuesday.

Speaking during workshop, Dr Deepak Puri the global chairman of Cardiomersion said despite the fact that heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death among women yet it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated because of basic differences in the presentation and diagnostic as well as treatment challenges which are entirely different from men.

He emphasized that the risk of death due to heart disease and stroke is higher in women as compared to men and attribute to one in three women deaths throughout the world yet the myth prevails that men are more affected . Every year six times more women die because of heart disease as compared to breast cancer and the heart disease deaths in women are more than the deaths due to all cancer deaths in women combined, maintained Dr. Puri who is also a director of  cardiovascular thoracic surgery at Max Hospital, Mohali

“Women do not present with usual symptoms and 64% women die suddenly of heart attacks without having any previous symptoms. In 53% women heart attack symptoms go unrecognized,”

It is indeed unfortunate as 80 % of these deaths are preventable with simple lifestyle changes and education. Women do not usually experience classical chest pain but may present with unexplained fatigue, nausea, jaw pain ,tingling sensation in forearms and the diagnosis may be missed by even experienced doctors.
Pregnancy and menopause are two phases in women's life which test the endurance of heart and expose women to additional risk of heart disease and stroke . Even after pregnancy is over the risk for heart attacks is higher in those who had pregnancy induced high blood pressure or high blood sugar, preeclampsia, premature delivery or persisting weight gain, he said.

Those who have premature Menopause before the age of 40 years have 40% higher risk of heart attacks . Women smokers have higher risk compared to men and alcohol consumption beyond 1 drink also worsens the risk among women. Risk of Heart attacks increases 3 to 7 times in females who have diabetes whereas it increases only 2 to 3 times in males.

Stress is another factor which affects women more compared to men especially after menopause. In young females Tako Subo cardiomyopathy also called Broken Heart Syndrome is quite common following extremely stressful situations.

The outcome of heart disease is also worse in females because they come forward for treatment less frequently as compared to men. Moreover the outcome after interventions is further worsened in women because of obesity and smaller size of arteries and late presentation, asserted Dr Puri.