Causes of heart attacks

Heart attacks kill more women each year in the UK than all the cancers combined. A series of new reports is indicating that, though women have historically lived longer than men, this trend may be reversing. In part this may be due to the extent in which women are shifting their own lives from the home to the workplace. Studies in the New England Journal of Medicine by the Continuous Mortality Investigative Bureau and published in The Journal * and also in Sweden claim that a rise in smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity, work–related stress and late pregnancy are contributing to a shortened life expectancy.

Smoking –Teenage women in the UK now smoke more than men. Women are 1.5 times more likely to develop lung cancer than men and have experienced an increase in such deaths of 150% over the past twenty years (men + 20%).

Drinking –Women are more sensitive to alcohol than men. Drink–related deaths in the UK amongst women 35–44 years old has increased 700% in the last thirty years.

Obesity –30% of UK adults are obese, but women are more likely to die as a result, from related cancer or heart attack.

Stress –Work–related stress affects women more disastrously than men, often because, in trying to combine work, virtually alone, with their role as mothers, they simply take on too much.

Pregnancy –Women are having their children later in life. In the UK, first–time mothers in the 30–34 age group outnumber those in the 20–24 age group. There has been a 50% increase in the over 40s having babies. Women leaving childbirth until after the age of 30 increase the risk of breast cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes.

*The Journal: A publication of the UK Chartered Insurance Institute

 

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