Studies show that one in three American women dies of heart disease and that the disease is the number one killer of women. In fact, every year since 1984, more women than men have died of heart disease.

"For years, women have believed that breast cancer is their greatest health threat and that heart disease is a man's disease," says cardiologist Robert Schott, M.D., of Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento. "Our goal is to help educate women about their risk factors and symptoms."

Dr. Schott says that many women may not recognize the symptoms of a heart attack, and this is compounded by the fact that they don't see themselves as at risk for the disease.

Many Women Don't See Themselves at Risk

For example, 49-year-old Pamela Xiromamos of Sacramento considered herself to be healthy and physically fit before suffering a heart attack. "The only risk factor that I was aware of was that I smoked," says Xiromamos, a runner, bike rider and long-time vegetarian. "One night I had gone to bed at about 11 o’clock, and I was shortly awakened by a strong sensation in my chest. It kind of felt like a hot coal sitting in the middle of my chest,” recalls Xiromamos. “As I lay in bed, the sensation seemed to morph into something totally different — it began to feel like the onset of a muscle cramp.”

Xiromamos’ pain started to get worse, and her fingers and hands started to tingle. As her husband, George, reached for the phone to call 911, Xiromamos remembered reading that people should take aspirin if they felt as though they were having a heart attack. Aspirin helps prevent blood clots from forming, which reduces the risk for heart attack. Xiromamos went immediately to the medicine cabinet, got two aspirins and started chewing them. It turned out that Xiromamos was indeed having a major heart attack and ended up having an angioplasty and a stent implanted.

Beyond Traditional Risk Factors

“When I first met Pam, I didn’t think heart disease — she was lacking a lot of the things we traditionally associate with the disease,” says Dr. Schott. “So we had to look beyond the traditional factors to try to understand why she developed heart disease.”

Through new, highly specialized blood tests, Dr. Schott was able to determine that even though Xiromamos’ total cholesterol level seemed OK, she had high levels of a particularly bad type of cholesterol. She also had a marker for inflammation. “Inflammation can cause plaque in the arteries to rupture, which leads to a heart attack,” explains Dr. Schott.

Xiromamos immediately started taking cholesterol-lowering medication. She also quit smoking and made a strong commitment to exercise every day.

Educating Other Women

Now Xiromamos is helping Sutter Health reach more women with the message that heart disease can happen to them. She is one of many women who are telling their stories through Sutter's Women's Heart Advantage Program, an educational and clinical effort sponsored by the doctors, nurses and hospitals of Sutter Health to raise awareness of heart disease in women and improve early detection and treatment. We encourage you to discuss heart health with your doctor, including your family history of heart disease and your risk factors. It’s never too late to start protecting your heart.