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After surviving a heart attack, Kathy Strough is back to her favorite hobby, billiards.
Shortly after the holidays, Kathy Strough felt some pain in her chest and down one arm. Yet the 53-year-old Pottsville woman wasn’t alarmed. After all, she’s slender and has normal blood pressure and cholesterol. Then, one January morning, she felt agonizing chest pain after smoking a cigarette. “I wanted to see if the pain would go away,” Strough says.
After an hour, Strough’s son, Josh, called 9-1-1. During the ambulance ride, Strough’s pain intensified. “It felt like my heart was being wrung out,” she says. She was rushed to a helicopter, which flew her to Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest. A major artery was blocked at 99 percent, and doctors inserted a stent to increase blood flow and save her life.
Strough had just one risk factor for heart disease — smoking — yet women who smoke are six times more likely to develop heart disease than women who don’t. Not all risk factors are equal, says cardiologist Amy Ahnert, MD, of Lehigh Valley Health Network.
Some risk factors for heart disease, such as smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or family history, are well-known. Others may surprise you. “Having preeclampsia or gestational diabetes during pregnancy will increase a woman’s risk for heart disease later in life,” Ahnert says. “Inflammatory conditions like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis also increase risk.”
Here’s another potential surprise: heart disease can strike at any age, and 80 percent of heart events in women can be prevented. “That’s why women should be screened for heart disease and its risk factors as early as possible,” Ahnert says. “It’s never too early to adopt a heart-healthy diet and exercise routine.”
It’s also never too late to stop smoking, something Strough has learned. “I wish I had quit a long time ago,” she says. She now takes several medications daily. “Everything I’ve read about heart attacks says I shouldn’t be here today,” Strough says. “I’m grateful.”