TUCSON, Ariz. -- Nanette Morrow was a busy 36-year-old mother of two and high profile prosecutor when the heart attack hit.It was sudden and very unexpected.Like many women with heart disease, Morrow did not show typical signs of having a heart attack and was so young that she says even the paramedics who came to her house did not recognize her symptoms.She did not have high blood pressure, and had no strong family history of heart disease. She wasn't a big drinker. Her only real risk was a habit of occasional smoking that began about 10 years ago.But Morrow is not an anomaly. Heart disease is the top killer of American women: 9,000 American women under age 45 suffer heart attacks every year and a 2007 study by Northwestern University researchers found that cardiovascular disease is on the rise among women in that age group.Despite the risk, heart disease is not something that women typically think will happen to them, experts say.Also, women are much less likely than men to seek early treatment for heart-related symptoms."Unfortunately, many women don't think that they are at risk for heart disease and still feel that their personal risk of breast cancer is higher than that of a heart attack," said Dr. Brenda Peart, a Tucson cardiologist who is also chief of staff-elect at St. Joseph's Hospital."Many women are not aware that one in three women will die from heart disease and only one in 25 die from breast cancer."Morrow is relieved that she lived to tell her story.Doctors discovered she had three clogged arteries, and one of them was 100 percent blocked.The doctors could offer only two explanations for her early heart disease: smoking and stress. Women who smoke risk having a heart attack 19 years earlier than non-smoking women, the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease says.Morrow ended up getting three stents in her heart. A stent is a wire metal mesh tube used to hold an artery open. The stent stays in the artery permanently, improves blood flow to the heart muscle, and relieves symptoms. The inside lining of the artery eventually grows over the metal surface of the stent.Two days after her operation Morrow went home from the hospital and stayed home from work for two weeks. She quit smoking cold turkey.But returning to the Pima County Attorney's Office, where she worked in the that prosecutes sex crimes, was difficult. She felt her stress level rising and worried about her health. One month after having her heart attack she felt chest pains again, and doctors inserted a fourth stent.Life had to change. She quit her job at the end of February and took a lower-stress position with a law firm that specializes in insurance defense.She went through an intense cardiac rehabilitation program, and became more vigilant about her diet and exercise. The food that Morrow buys now doesn't have more than 15 percent sodium, fat or saturated fat, making shopping a more involved process.She also has come to understand that there is always stress in our lives. The key is learning to control that stress and finding ways at the end of the day to decompress. None of it has been easy, and Morrow still misses her frenetic days as a prosecutor.Looking back on the experience, Morrow now recognizes that she did have some warning signs. About nine months before her heart attack, she felt pressure in her chest, went to her doctor, and ended up getting her gallbladder removed. What she's since learned is that heart problems can be mistaken for gastrointestinal trouble.Peart, the St. Joseph's Hospital cardiologist, says that in general women have more vague heart attack symptoms than men."They may only complain of fatigue or shortness of breath," she said. "Other common symptoms women present with include nausea, weakness, palpitations and chest tightness or chest pressure. Women also tend to attribute their symptoms to getting older, being out of shape or to stress, rather than their heart."Women also show up in the emergency room later in their heart attacks than men, so by the time they do receive treatment more heart muscle has been damaged. That's why almost 50 percent of women who have a heart attack will go on to develop congestive heart failure, compared with only 20 percent of their male counterparts, Peart said.E-mail Stephanie Innes at sinnes(at)azstarnet.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
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