AUBURN -There's an outdated stereotype about heart disease that is still lingering. Think - heart attack. Do you think of a middle-aged man overworking himself at his desk or on an assembly line, or a woman?

Heart disease is still a top cause of death for men, but it's also the number one killer of women who have to handle the multitudinous stresses of working life, child care, as well as being a support system for families and friends.

“They used to call it a man's disease,” said Mary Mazzeo, Auburn Memorial Hospital's nurse manager of the hospital's critical care unit, including its cardiovascular services. “But it's really not. Women and men get it equally.” Last week, of 13 cardiac patients at AMH, nine were women.

Women tend to jump on someone else's health problems and push them to seek medical attention, but they often deny their own discomfort, a trend Mazzeo has seen both in patients and in medical research.

A recent University of Michigan study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, found that female patients of a heart attack or severe chest pain rated their disease less severe, even when their condition was more serious than male patients participating in the study.

Other studies have shown that women survivors are less likely to participate in rehabilitation, and most often delay seeking help for heart-related problems in comparison to men.

“They take care of other people so much, they don't even take care of themselves,” Mazzeo said. “They never follow up on the problem.”

Chest pains, which are commonly known symptoms of heart attacks, are more often the symptoms for men, but not for women.

Research has found that women feel unusual fatigue, sleep disturbance, shortness of breath, nausea, stomach discomfort, a pain down the arms and anxiety prior to the heart attack.

During the heart attack, women often experience shortness of breath, weakness, unusual fatigue, cold sweats and dizziness.

The differences between men's and women's heart attack symptoms is not widely known, according to a National Institute of Health (NIH) study.

These gaps in knowledge, about the propensity of heart disease to be a serious health risk, led the NIH to begin the Heart Truth campaign, which was instituted as a result of the constant urging from women heart attack survivors.

“I think it's never been on the national agenda to make this an issue,” said Perry Long, the communications director for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH.

The campaign instituted its signature symbol of the red dress to represent women and heart disease awareness in February of 2003.

Long said there is some good news following the campaign's efforts over the last few years. Within four years, the percentage of women who are aware that heart disease is a threat has increased from 34 percent to 57 percent.

But the problem still remains that women “don't take it serious and personally,” Long said. “They don't realize it applies to them.”

Instead, the knowledge translates into women thinking “it's the number one killer of them, but not me,” Long added.

But knowing this statistic should not lead women to feel defeat.

It is a disease that something can be done about. The risk of heart disease can be reduced by up to 82 percent by leading a healthy lifestyle, Long said.

To continue raising women's awareness that heart disease can be prevented, on the national level, Heart Truth will have its latest red dress collections launched during New York City's fashion week, which pairs up with the National Wear Red Day on Feb. 3.

AMH is developing a local “Go Red for Women” event for February. The event will include a roundtable of female survivors of heart attacks who will talk about their experiences.

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net