Heart Attack Information For Women

Axxording to Dutch researchers, men are more likely to realize they are having a heart attack than women, Dutch researchers say. More than half of women and just one-third of men did not realize the symptoms they were suffering meant they were having a heart attack according to the Erasmus Medical Center study of 4,000 people concludes.

The study said as many as 40 percent of heart attacks go unrecognized. Researcher Eric Boersma said that may be because men and women experience pain differently.

"Women may sense shoulder pain instead of chest pain, they may think they have severe flu that is taking a long time to recover from, and those with an inferior-wall infarction may complain of stomach pain," he told the BBC.

Although the study used data from the 1990s, "today we are much more vigilant in identifying patients at risk of developing heart disease and treating them," said Peter Weissberg of the British Heart Foundation.

The study was published in the European Heart Journal.