Women’s symptoms are more subtle.
Nausea may be the first major symptom for a woman instead of severe chest pain. Even when there is chest pain, there is a chance that the threat of heart disease for women is not taken as seriously as it is for men. That’s why women must protect themselves against heart disease by knowing the symptoms, not ignoring the symptoms, and demanding care when you believe you need it.

Women don’t always get equal treatment.
Women typically take longer to get to the hospital than men when they are experiencing symptoms of heart attack. It may be denial. But it can also be deadly.

Once they arrive at the hospital, women are usually in more serious condition because they have delayed coming. Yet doctors are less likely to believe that a woman is having a heart attack. As a result, she is less likely to be admitted to the coronary care unit or receive life-saving treatments. Women are also more likely to die during bypass surgery, probably because the disease has advanced to a more serious condition than for the typical man.

Cancer-fighting drugs can increase the risk of heart attack.
Women taking estrogen supplements reduce their risk of heart attack and osteoporosis. But the threat of uterine cancer increases significantly. Long-term use of estrogens to reduce symptoms of menopause also increases your risk of breast cancer.

To reduce the cancer risks, doctors often prescribe progesterone to be taken with estrogen. And while the progesterone seems to lower the risk of uterine cancer, it also diminishes the estrogen’s protective benefits against heart disease. Instead of throwing up your hands in frustration, you need to understand the underlying problem that puts women at risk for all these diseases.

What you eat can make you sick.
For the vast majority of women in America today, the key to understanding how to fight heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and a difficult menopause is understanding the impact of your diet on health. The typical American diet, loaded with fat, cholesterol, protein and refined foods, is at the heart of all these problems. Rather than dealing with the risk of these diseases as unrelated problems, the key is to see them all as part of one.

A diet high in fiber and carbohydrates along with adequate exercise is the best insurance against heart disease and all the other risks that are cutting the lives of American women short.

For you were bought at a price;
therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJ