Today I watched a TED Talk in which Noel Bairey Merz talks about the biggest health problem women face.
One out of two women will be impacted by cardiovascular disease in their lifetime. This disease is the leading killer of women, even more than breast cancer! Cardiovascular disease kills more women at every age than breast cancer and it is a secret.
Since 1984, more women in the US than men die of heart disease! Heart disease was often thought of as a men's problem during the 1950s and 60s- but that was never true, in fact, it is actually a women's disease!
Diagnostic and therapeutic strateies that have been invented by men, for men do nor work for women.
There needs to be a campaign for heart disease in women as strong as the breast cancer campaign, Merz suggests.
Most of the people don't know about cardiovascular disease, but do know about breast cancer because breast cancer kills people, no matter if men or women, slowly but in 50% of cardiovascular disease cases, it leads to a direct sudden death.
There are 3 times more women dying of heart disease than men because their heart disease does not look like a men's heart disease: The medicine that was researched about for 50 years only works for men, women don't get the benefit of the modern research. When men have heart attacks, "it explodes", in women it "erodes", it doesn't completely fill the clot, EKG findings are different in female patterns.
There is now a possibility to look into women's bodies and hearts without radiation
What is the difference between men and women physiologically?
The answer is stem cells. Female stem cells, when even put into male bodies, are better at repairing the body than male stem cells!
Understandig cardiovascular disease in women will then automatically help not only women, but also men.
Source:
http://www.ted.com/talks/noel_bairey_merz_the_single_biggest_health_threat_women_face.html
