ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - Cardiovascular disease is a killer for both men and women however, for the past thirty years the death rate has been higher for women than men.
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The American Heart Association aims to identify why women carry more risk. It is the number one killer of women and is more deadly than all forms of cancer combined. Nearly 50,000 women died from heart attacks in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. A Cleveland Clinic cardiologist that women don't always recognize the signs of heart attack, which could be part of the problem.
"They don't necessarily have the crushing chest pain where it feels like an elephant is sitting on their chest," said Dr. Deborah Kwon, a Cleveland Clinic Cardiologist. "But they may have something more like back pain, or jaw pain, and so it may not come to patient's forefront of their mind that they may be having a heart attack."
The American Heart Association indicates in the past 15 years, there has been a significant decline in the number of women killed by cardiovascular disease but say more education is needed.