If someone asked you to picture aheart attackpatient, you might imagine an older man clutching his chest.
In reality every year an estimated445,000U.S.
A major cause of heart attacks in women is SCAD, or spontaneous coronary artery dissection.
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And the strangest thing about SCAD: It most commonly affects otherwise healthy women in their 40s and 50s.
This causes the part of the heart that doesnt have enough oxygen to start to die.
But other times it occurs because of SCAD.
That lack of blood flow can lead to amedical emergencylike a heart attack.
Experts know SCAD is rare, but theyarent sureexactly how often it happens.
It has historically been underdiagnosed, mainly because heart attacks aren’t often suspected in younger, healthy women.
Providers may also be less familiar with it as a cause of heart attack.
But its impact on women is shockingly disproportionate.
The others largely tend to be due to atherosclerosis.
Reading that is naturally a little scary, but remember that SCAD is a rare occurrence overall.
Its also not usually fatal; SCAD is thought to be at fault for around0.5 percentof sudden cardiac deaths.
Getting help as soon as you notice symptoms no matter your age is a critical part of surviving SCAD.
That includes heart attacks that happen due to SCAD.
Beyond chest discomfort,heart attacksymptoms can be nuanced and surprising, especially for women.
In women, symptoms of heart attacks can be much more subtle, Dr. Steinbaum tells SELF.
If thats what youre feeling, thats when you oughta get help, she adds.
At this point you have a fair amount of background information about SCAD.
As of now theres no established evidence that these external hormone sources are clear SCAD risk factors.
However, of those heart attacks that happen during or right afterpregnancy, a significant number involve SCAD.
Thats still uncommon, but prevalent enough to get researchers attention.
Experts believe the significant hormonal changes that come withpregnancy and giving birthcould be largely to blame here.
Tweet explains that fluctuating hormone levels (rather than the hormones themselves) could contribute to SCAD.
This extreme physical exertion can be one of many things that coalesce to trigger SCAD.
(Well explore that a bit more down below.)
On the flip side, having SCAD can bring about or exacerbate these conditions in the recovery period.
A more sudden pop in of stress could also trigger SCAD.
Its a well-known fact that women have higher rates of many mentalhealth conditionsthan men do.
These health conditions can contribute to stress and vice versa.
That is, until it becomes severe enough to lead to something like SCAD.
Estimates suggest that over 90 percent of people with FMD are women, according to theCleveland Clinic.
Again, hormones are a big contributing factor here though experts arent sure how.
In addition to FMD, physical exertion happens to be a major SCAD risk factor in men.
Finally, genetic connective tissue disorders likeMarfan,Ehlers-Danlos, orLoeys-Dietzsyndromes also seem to be associated with SCAD.
Taking SCAD symptoms seriously
If you experience any SCAD symptoms, call 911.
A lot of womenyoung women in particularignore their symptoms, Dr.
However, Dr. Wood says, this isnt always necessary.
