Talk to Explore Heart Disease in Women

Much of the medical community is unaware of the differences in heart disease between men and women, according to Norma Vedvik, a health and fitness educator who taught at Ventura College for 30 years.

Vedvik will speak on “The Hidden Epidemic: Women and Heart Disease” as part of Women’s History Month on Monday in the college’s theater building.

“Heart disease has been studied in men for many years, but the medical community has not studied it in women,” Vedvik said. “They’ve taken what they learn from studies on men and superimpose it on women--and it’s not working very well.”

Heart disease develops differently in men and women because women have smaller hearts and passages, Vedvik said.

Symptoms are also different between men and women, she said. A man might have sharp pains in his chest, whereas a woman might simply feel fatigued or experience a slight tightness in her chest.

Additionally, men might develop heart disease while in their 40s while it tends to develop in women usually 10 or more years after menopause.

Apparently doctors have a more difficult time detecting what Vedvik refers to as “the silent killer” in women as well.

“Women usually get diagnosed with it after going to the doctor over and over again, saying something is wrong and refusing to be sent home with antacids as a cure,” she said. “Women have to stand up and learn to become their own best advocates.”

Vedvik’s lecture will be in room G-211 on the second floor of the theater building, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.