Until just a few years ago, doctors thought that men’s and women’s hearts were virtually the same. Sure, women’s hearts were a little smaller than men’s, but they looked the same, and doctors assumed that they essentially worked–or didn’t work–in the same way. They were dangerously wrong. In “Heart Disease: Lifesaving News for Men and Women,” Mike Zimmerman and JoBeth McDaniel explore the biggest threats to men’s and women’s hearts. For women, it is the widespread and frightening misdiagnosis of heart disease–even advanced heart disease–in women, in part because the disease manifests itself so differently in women than in men. (The traditional tests for blockages often come out normal for women, even when their arteries are severely blocked.) For men, the biggest threat to their hearts is the dramatic rise in atrial fibrillation, a condition that raises your risk of a stroke fivefold. What’s more, doctors are seeing an uptick in A-fib among those who might seemingly be least at risk: healthy, active men under the age of 60. These two stories shed light on why these conditions are often misdiagnosed, the deadly consequences that can result, and what you need to know to protect your heart.
