heart to heart

When you think of heart attacks, elderly men and women are probably first to come to mind. In actuality, this isn’t always the case. Spontaneous coronary artery dissection, or SCAD, is a type of heart attack that mostly a ects younger people, many of them women.

“It’s caused by a split or tear in an otherwise healthy artery that leads to a drop-in blood flow to the heart, leading to a heart attack,” says cardiologist Dr. Sharonne Hayes of the Mayo Clinic. Hayes, in an attempt to raise awareness for SCAD heart attacks, has pinpointed 42 as the average age of those a ected, with roughly 10 to 20 percent being new mothers or pregnant women.

Because SCAD patients are not necessarily prone to heart disease, researchers urge women to pay