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The top five killers of women are heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Although some risk factors for these diseases are uncontrollable, healthy habits can help to reduce many of them. Here’s what women need to know.
Sharon Davis remembers that she could hardly keep her eyes open. All she wanted to do was take a nap, she says of that day in March.
Despite what Davis, 49, believed to be simply a lack of sleep, she decided to attend an event with her church group in Okemah. The decision probably saved her life.
While attending the event, Davis’ left side became paralyzed and her speech slurred. A fellow church group member who works as a pharmacist realized she was having a stroke, and Davis, a Shawnee resident, was quickly airlifted to St. John Medical Center, where doctors treated her with IV-TPA, a clot-busting drug.
Davis is one of the 3.9 million women in the United States who suffer a stroke each year. Not all victims are as lucky as she.
More than 83,000 women die from strokes each year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — making stroke the third-leading cause of death for females in the United States.
Stroke represents one of the Top Five killers of women, along with heart disease, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Here’s what you need to know about them:
1 Heart disease — the leading killer of females in the country — accounts for more than one-quarter of the 1.2 million deaths each year. Heart disease is a broad term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. Coronary heart disease occurs when the blood vessels supplying blood and oxygen to the heart narrow, while a heart attack occurs when not enough oxygen makes its way to the heart because of blocked blood vessels.
The classic symptoms of a heart attack, says Dr. Wayne N. Leimbach Jr., an interventional cardiologist with Oklahoma Heart Institute and the chief of cardiology at Hillcrest Medical Center, are chest pressure or a heaviness in the chest that feels “like a bear hugging you very tight or an elephant sitting on the chest.”
Patients may also experience toothaches, pain in the chest, jaw aches and nausea. Non-classic symptoms include weakness and the impression that you “just don’t feel good when trying to do things,” Leimbach says. The patient may feel as if his or her heart is having palpitations.
Leimbach notes that 70 percent to 90 percent of all heart attacks are preventable and emphasizes that women should know their blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Also, women should not smoke. Exercise is another important preventive tool.
“It doesn’t have to mean running marathons,” Leimbach says.
Instead, a 10-minute walk, seven days a week, has been found to reduce the cardiovascular risk.
To treat heart attacks, doctors can prescribe medication to help the heart work more efficiently, insert balloons or stents into tight blockages and conduct bypass surgery.
2 Cancer, when abnormal cells grow out of control, is the second-leading cause of death among women. According to the American Cancer Society, women’s actions can cause some cancers. For example, smoking can cause many cancers of the lung, throat, kidney and mouth. Other times, cancer is related to genetic factors.
To help prevent different forms of cancer, the American Cancer Society advises women to stop smoking and avoid excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays, which can cause skin cancer.
3 Davis, the stroke victim, showed classic signs of a stroke, the third-leading cause of death among women. Stroke victims often experience paralysis on one side of their bodies and garbled speech, as Davis did.
A sudden and severe headache with no known cause is one warning sign of a stroke, especially hemorrhagic strokes, says Dr. Anna Wanahita, co-director of St. John Stroke Center and director of St. John Stroke Service.
There are two different types of strokes, she says. In an ischemic stroke, the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off, leading to brain dysfunction. A hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures and bleeds into the brain, damaging the cells.
Controllable risk factors include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, tobacco use, obesity, diet, exercise, and drug and heavy alcohol use. Other factors, such as age, gender, race, ethnicity and family history, are non-modifiable. Certain heart defects or arteries that fail to develop properly are considered risk factors of stroke as well.
If a stroke is diagnosed within three hours of an occurrence, doctors can administer the clot-reducing drug Tissue Plasminogen activator before later trying to remove the clot.
4 Emphysema and bronchitis are the major types of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), the fourth-leading cause of death for females. Symptoms are related to breathing limitations, says Dr. Fred Garfinkel, a pulmonologist with Hillcrest Medical Center.
COPD, Garfinkel says, is considered more than simply a lung disease.
“It’s now considered an inflammatory disease that involves the whole body — muscle weakness and increased cardiac problems,” he says.
Most people initially ignore the early warning sign of shortness of breath. They simply change their routine to accommodate it, the doctor says. Another sign is a chronic cough with colored material.
He stresses that COPD is a preventable and treatable disease, with the bulk of cases caused by smoking. Indoor air pollutants and genetic factors also can cause the disease.
5 Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive brain disease, kills 4 percent of women each year. The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s results from the degeneration of healthy tissue, causing memory loss. Several warning signs of the disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association: memory loss disrupting daily life; difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, work or at leisure; and problems with speaking or writing.
The cause of the disease is not totally understood, but experts believe that two abnormalities — buildups between brain cells called plaques and tangles, knots of nerve cell fibers in the brain — play a major role.
Currently, there is no way to fully prevent the disease. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the drugs Memantine and Cholinesterase inhibitors to treat the cognitive problems stemming from Alzheimer’s.
While these diseases have become a common part of American life, through healthy lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, women have an opportunity to reduce their risk and extend their lives.
