EmpowHer:
Now heart disease is a disease for older women but is it common in younger women?
Dr. Alfred Bove:
Well, it’s not common in younger men or women. On the other hand, I think we’re becoming aware that we should pay attention to younger people who have symptoms for disease and then often when we go back and look. If we find a 38-year-old women with a real heart disease, it’s almost invariable because when we go back and look, they have high cholesterol, they have hypertension and were smoking and all that stuff has been going on for 20 years until an event occurs.
So almost always, when we see a younger person, a man or a woman with what we call premature heart disease, we can identify the risk factors that have been there causing this problem. So that’s why I say it’s so important to go back and look at your risk factors way before any clinical symptom occurs.
Dr. Alfred Bove, MD, PhD is a Temple University professor emeritus of medicine, and their section chief of cardiology. Dr. Bove practices clinical cardiology with particular emphasis on heart failure, heart transplantation and he’s the Vice President of the American College of Cardiology.