1. Learn the symptoms and risk factors.
A study of female heart attack survivors found that most remembered experiencing sleeplessness and fatigue within the month before their heart attacks. And while it's not a classic risk factor, stress is starting to look like it may play a role in heart disease, and who among us is not under some kind of stress? African American women may be especially vulnerable, and have an even higher risk of death from heart disease since a recent study found that they may produce less of the chemical nitric oxide, which is needed to improve blood flow for coping with stressful situations.
2. Discuss any symptoms or concerns with your doctor at your next visit, or schedule that physical that you haven't quite found time to get around to.
If you don't get answers and solutions from your doctor, seek a second opinion. Some doctors were trained when heart disease wasn't a woman's issue, so they don't know what to look for in women and may mistake your symptoms as simply being something else. What your doctor doesn't know can hurt you, so it's important for us to be proactive in our own health care.
3. Get your cholesterol checked.
It's a simple blood test. If your total cholesterol is above 200, your doctor may prescribe a cholesterol-lowering statin drug. Statins are considered so beneficial for most of the population that some doctors only half-jokingly suggest that we should put them in our water. Statins are available only by prescription, and can be expensive.
