How many people do you know who have had a heart attack or some form of heart disease or heart failure. How many are women and how many are men?

Most of the people I know who have had a heart attack or have some kind of heart disease or heart failure are men. My neighbor across the street is living with congestive heart failure. A former work colleague, who is much younger than I am, has had two heart attacks. I recall a famous minister who, in 2007, was found dead on the floor of his office at the age of 76. He died of heart failure.

For many years, most of us usually associated heart attacks and heart failure with men. After all, men tend to guzzle more beer, smoke more cigarettes and cigars and eat all of the wrong foods – burgers, sausages, steak, French fries and other fatty and fried foods. Men are also exposed to more toxic chemicals and air pollution in the work place than women, at least traditionally.

Women, on the other hand, for years, smoked less, drank less beer and more health-friendly wine, and ate healthier diets and smaller portions. Not as many women worked in environments that had more toxic chemicals or air pollutants like coal mines and many factories.

But, many of those trends have changed over the years and so has the sex of those who are dying more from heart attacks and heart failure.

Yes, at one time, more men died from heart related issues, but for the past 30 years or so, more women are dying from heart related issues and part of that is blamed on age.

Researchers in Canada just published a report in which they wrote:

“There are known sex-based differences in the risk factors, presentation and management of heart disease.”

They analyzed the data of 90,000 people who suffered heart failure from 2009 to 2014. They discovered that 14.9% of the men died within one year of being diagnosed, but 16.8% of the women died within the first year.

Why the change and difference?

The researchers believe it has to do with age and frailty. They pointed to an earlier report from the United States, that said the average age of a man at his first heart attack is 65, while the average age of a women at her first heart attack is 72.

“According to another Harvard report, heart disease has killed more women than men every year since 1984. Researchers have guessed that the higher death rates have to do with women having heart attacks at an older age than men.”

Another reason more women are dying from heart related issues is that they tend to develop what’s known as ‘small vessel disease’. This is when the blockage happens in the tiny vessels in the heart instead of the large vessels as seen in more in men. These blockages in smaller vessels are harder to detect and thus often go untreated.

So, ladies be warned!