Heart disease is the most common health challenge for both men and women. Even then it does not affect them the same way. Some heart conditions are seen to occur more in men than women and if it is the same problem then the symptoms may be different. For women, it is always important to know what to watch for and how to protect yourself as you get old.

Warning Signs

We all know that whenever someone has chest pain then we presume it to be a heart attack. In real life, women may have less obvious symptoms are are as likely to get shortness of breath instead of marked chest pain. You may also feel pain in the jaws, back and upper belly. Women will usually feel nauseous, lightheaded and dizzy.

What’s SCAD?

Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) is when the heart’s blood vessel gets a tear. This can slow the blood flow or block it. Ultimately leading to severe chest pain and other symptoms that feel like heart attack. This is a serious condition that requires immediately medical care. Women are more prone to get SCAD, especially when they have recently given birth to a child.

Broken Heart

A broken heart syndrome is medically known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy, it can happen more to women than men. It is caused by a sudden release of stress hormones and occurs after a very emotional event like divorce or death in a family. The thing that happens is that a part of the heat gets bigger and stops pumping efficiently, this cause intense chest pain and immediately medical help is required.

Menopause

In menopause women experience multiple changes to their bodies, while it does not cause heart disease, the many changes can lead to one. The levels of estrogen go down rapidly and arteries can get stiffer. Whereas the blood pressure, belly fat and LDL rises. Being active is one way of countering the effects of menopause.

Inflammation

If a woman is suffering from problems like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus etc. they have a chance of getting heart disease. Even if you are young, don’t smoke, and exercise regularly you can get affected. Inflammation can be kept in check with medications.

Diabetes

Diabetes can double a woman’s probability of getting heart disease. High blood sugar slowly slows down the flow of oxygen in your blood and lead to plaque build-up in the arteries. Women with diabetes also tend to be overweight or obese which can aggravate the BP and cholesterol problem. With proper diet and exercise the problem can be managed.

Hypertension or high blood pressure happens when the blood travels through blood vessels with more force than is considered healthy. When blood pressure is high, it can damage artery and blood vessels leading to dangerous complications and even death, if left untreated.

Artery Damage

The arteries are supposed to be sturdy, springy and smooth to enable the movement of blood from lungs and heart. It is in this movement that it helps collect oxygen and supply it to other organs or tissues. High blood pressure of HBP pushes too hard on your artery walls. This damages the inside and causes fat, or plaque to deposit. The plaque narrows the arteries, so they can’t do their job well.

Aneurysm

It is condition where the pressure pushes out a section of the artery wall and weakens it. If it breaks, it can bleed into your body. This is a very serious condition. It is likely to happen in any artery but particularly in the aorta. If the artery is damaged artery, you could get an aneurysm, even without blood pressure.

Coronary Artery Disease

CAD happens when plaque builds up in arteries closer to the heart. This slows down the blood flow, which can bring chest pain or a strange heart rhythm. The total blockage can cause heart attacks.

Heart Attack

When plaque builds up in the blood vessels, a clump of it breaks loose, to completely block an artery to the heart, this causes heart attack. The blockage can starve the heart  muscle of oxygen and nutrients. This hurts of destroys the heart. Usually a sort of pressure or pain is felt in the chest region, but sometimes it can be along the arm or jaw too. There can be difficult to breathe accompanied by nausea and dizziness.

Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)

High blood pressure can affect blood vessels that are farther from the heart like the arms, legs, head or stomach. Usually you will feel pain or cramps in the legs, often when you walk or climb stairs. The pain goes away once you rest or come back. Left untreated, PAD can bring about stroke, ulcers, and loss of circulation to the legs and lead to even amputation.

Heart Failure

High blood pressure can cause arteries to narrow and overtime they can make the heart work harder. This continuous condition makes the heart weaker. Eventually, it gets so weak that it can’t supply enough blood to the rest of the body. This is known as heart failure.

Enlarged Heart

When the heart works harder to move the blood around, the muscle of the heart thickens. This results in the whole heart getting enlarged. The bigger it gets, the less able it will be to do its job. The heart tissues also receive very less oxygen and nutrients they need. This condition can get serious and life threatening if continued.

Stroke

High blood pressure is the world’s top cause for stroke. There are two types of stroke, mainly the hemorrhagic one where the weakened artery bursts in the brain and the Ischemic one where the clump or clot in the artery, comes loose and lodges itself in the blood vessel blocking the blood flow to the brain. One part of the brain starts to die when it doesn’t get enough blood. This can hurt your ability to think, move, speak and see.

Dementia, kidney failure, eye problem, sexual dysfunction, bone loss and sleep apnea are other health problems caused by high blood pressure.

Metastasis is the process of cancer spreading to other parts of the body. In this type of cancer, the cancer cells travel to your bones through blood stream and other fluids. It is actually the cancer cells from an affected area travelling to bones in some other area and causing deposits in bones.

What are its risk factors?

All types of cancers can lead to bone metastasis. It is very difficult to predict if the particular cancer cells will spread, but certain cancers like that of breast, lung, thyroid, prostate and kidney can spread faster to bones. This is also true of larger tumours that affect the lymph nodes.

Where do metastasis occur?

Metastasis can occur in any bone of the body, but they tend to be closer to the centre of the body. The most common parts are spine, thigh bone, upper arm bone, ribs, hips and the skull.

What are the symptoms?

Excruciating pain in the bones is often the first sign. The pain usually occurs  off and on but the pain may become constant as the disease progresses. It is seen that the bone pain has a tendency to increase during night time.

How does it damage bones?

Metastasis weakens the bones, especially those in the spine and the long bones in the arms and legs. What happens is with each passing day everyday activities like coughing and sitting down in a chair can cause breaking of bones. The pain is often very sudden and it is sharp.

How is it diagnosed?

The doctor will order tests and take images of the inside of the body, even when there are no symptoms. With a simple X-ray a

Doctor may be able to diagnose broken bones etc. A bone scan though is a much more exact way of knowing about your bone and if it is broken. CT, MRI and PET scans are advised if required to find out if the cancer has spread.

Treating the primary cancer

The common treatments for bone metastasis include chemotherapy, hormone therapy and immunotherapy that targets the main caner. They are administered by orally, through injections and attack the cancer cells in the body.

The side effects can be nausea, vomiting, fatigue, hair loss and a high chance of getting various infections.

For pain reduction Radiotherapy can be given.

To stabilization of weak base also RT can be given. Bisphosphonate are given to prevail further base weakness.