mford@delphosherald.com

The American Heart Association has declared February “Go Red for Women” month and today as “National Wear Red Day.” In general, women’s heart disease symptoms are different from men’s and can appear to be no more than shortness of breath or heartburn.
Area cardiologists say women often ignore the symptoms instead of taking them seriously.
“It can be anything above the waist, not just chest pressure or discomfort. It could be in the upper abdomen, neck, jaw, shoulders or the arms could ache or get heavy. It could even just be shortness of breath,” said Dr. Pamela Gardener of the Heart and Vascular Institute at Lima Memorial Health System. “It will come on when they’re doing something like climbing a set of stairs or vacuuming. They’ll sit down and rest for a couple minutes and it will go away. So, we need to watch for a pattern of it coming on when they’re doing something, then going away when they rest. They can have pain, discomfort or also nausea and vomiting with it, but it may only be shortness of breath and they’ll blow it off, thinking they’re just out of shape.