Heart Health: Why it’s Different for Women

In this week’s episode of The Wellness Conversation, the focus shifts to women’s heart health, where experts break down the often-overlooked risks to women.

Marcus Thorpe and Lindsey Gordon have a thought-provoking discussion with two OhioHealth cardiologists, Lindsay Castle, DO and Laura Flannery, MD about heart disease in women, where they offer advice for prevention and care.

There is a lot of misinformation surrounding heart disease and what part of the heart you need to take extra care of.

“Heart disease really can involve any part of the heart or any part of the cardiovascular system,” said Dr. Castle. “I specialize in heart failure, which is weakness of the heart muscle and its pumping or high pressure that's higher in the heart chambers than it should be.”

When asked what symptoms are most common in women, one stood out from the rest.

Dr. Flannery said, “When I talk to my patients, especially those who end up with an abnormal stress test or being diagnosed, the number one thing I hear from them is fatigue.”

Listeners want to know how they can catch symptoms early, so they can stay ahead of treatment.

Dr. Castle said, “One of the best things that anybody can do is to develop a really good relationship with a primary care physician.” You can say, “These are the symptoms I'm having. What do you think about it? Should we do some additional testing?”

There is a clear lack of research done for women in the heart health space. Dr. Flannery was asked if this face was something she was apprehensive about.

“Absolutely. I mean, I think this is something that we've come a long way with, but we still have a long way to go,” said Dr. Flannery. “There's an increasing focus on not just being able to ensure that we increase more women into clinical trials and have more representation of women throughout the field, to help with women being seen, but also to focus on sex specific differences and outcomes.”

To listen to the full episode, click here.