Stroke Can Occur Due To Regularly Long Hours Of Sleep
In photo: Though the number of men suffering from heart issues are double than that of women, the death rate is almost equal. Reuters

It is said that women take care of their body but tend to neglect their heart health.

Julie Anne Mitchell, Heart Foundation spokeswoman, said, "Women underestimate the impact of a heart attack on their health and are less likely to take the steps necessary to keep them out of hospital a second time."

19,000 women are admitted to a hospital for a heart attack, out of which 4,500 women die each year and 36,000 men are admitted for the same, and 4, 700 men, a number almost equal to the women who die due to a heart attack, pass away each year. The number of men suffering from heart problems might almost be double of the number of women but their death rate are almost the same.

Mitchell explained that the difference in numbers is because women survivors of heart attacks are more likely than men to die from a second heart attack. Women, even after suffering from their first heart attack, don't take much care and don't take steps to change their lifestyle. They see to rush home after their hospital visit and continue their lives as they did before the heart attack. They don't even understand the importance of undertaking a rehabilitation program.

'The Australian' website puts forth an incident regarding women having heart attacks. In 2008, in Sydney, Ann Keegan, a 58-year-old, had a heart attack while she was taking a walk.

Ann said that she went out for a walk and she kept getting breathless and having chest pains. She decided that she will feel better if she goes in for a shower. But there was no improvement because of which she decided to visit her doctor. The doctor suggested that she get transferred to the hospital immediately.

Having a history of heart problems in her family, the mother of one refused to believe that it would happen to her as well. She has learnt her lesson well and her message to the women out there is that one shouldn't ignore family history.

She advices, "Be vigilant, go and see a doctor and tell them about the history in your family, ask to get check you out, check your cholesterol." The heart attack scared Ann and she decided to go to Westmead Hospital for a cardiac rehabilitation course.

A research by the Heart Foundation suggests that only one quarter of heart attack survivors who were women complete a cardiac rehabilitation course which gors on for a span of about six to eight weeks.