HEALTH & WELLNESS
5
things all should know about their
women hearts W
Through research and advocacy, nursing professor Colleen Norris is helping raise awareness of women’s heart health among patients and health professionals. (Photo: John Ulan)
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APR / MAY 2022 News With A Desi View
omen face risks and causes of heart disease that men don’t — and knowing the differences is important to help them protect and advocate for their health. Five times more women die from heart disease than from breast cancer. Yet many women don’t realize that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of premature death for women in Canada. Although treatments and outcomes of cardiovascular diseases are known to be different between men and women, women continue to be underdiagnosed, undertreated, undersupported and underresearched, according to Colleen Norris, professor in the Faculty of Nursing. The “Hollywood heart attack” stereotype doesn’t fit women, said Norris, which means their symptoms are often missed. The causes of heart attack and the risk factors are also very different between men and women. Some of the risks for women can arise at an unexpectedly early age.
Cardiac researchers like Norris want Canadians to know the risks specific to women — and to share that knowledge with all the women they know on Wear Red Day. “If you ask Canadian women what they are afraid of, they will say breast cancer,” said Norris. “The idea of Wear Red Day is to educate and advocate about women’s heart health.” Norris is co-chair of the Prairie working group of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance, which is hosting Wear Red Day Feb. 13, as well as the scientific director for Alberta Health Services’ Cardiovascular Health & Stroke Strategic Clinical Network. Here is some of the information she wants women and health-care professionals to know. Hospitals miss women’s symptoms more than 50 per cent of the time In her research, Norris tracked the number of women who showed up at emergency departments with signs www.desitoday.ca
