Here's an item that comes under the "oh, really?" category. Women are different than men.
In this case, we're talking about heart disease and heart attacks.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and that is a serious health concern for women. But they should also be aware of heart disease.
"Heart disease is the number one cause of mortality in women. Actually more women die from their heart attacks than men die from their heart attacks," said Dr. Kimberly Lund of Castle Medical Center.
Several things make it more difficult for women when it comes to heart disease or heart attacks.
"Women tend to often times not present with chest pains at all. And if they do present with chest pain, the chest pain is different. It tends to be a chest pain that radiates to the jaw or neck or back or is associated with indigestion or nausea," Lund says.
Forty three percent of women with heart attacks report no chest pain at all.
"It's not the classic elephant sitting on my chest with radiation down my left arm. Now, it can be and one shouldn't ignore those symptoms if they occur. But that is not the most common presentation," Lund says.
There are a number of heart disease risk factors for women including heredity. If your mother, grandmother or sister had heart problems, the chances are increased that you will have problems, too. There are other risk factors as well.
"High blood pressure is very prevalent. Eighty percent of all people will develop high blood pressure at some point in their lives. And it is a kind of important marker for cardio-vascular disease," Lund says.
And there is the matter of cholesterol - both good and bad.
"You need a good ratio of good and bad and that's something important for you to know - to know your numbers because there's a lot of lifestyle things that you can do with diet and exercise to help manage your cholesterol," Lund says.
