Mark Sanchez scored points in last week’s Super Bowl broadcast—not for playing, but for a public service announcement about women and heart attacks. It’s an important message, but a 20-second spot didn’t leave much time for details (like actual symptoms, for instance). We asked cardiologist Holly S. Andersen, M.D. of the WVFC medical advisory board to spell out exactly what women need to know. — Ed.

Heart disease is the number-one cause of death for both men and women in the US. It kills more every year than all cancers combined—and the next six causes of death combined. Since 1984, more women than men have died from heart disease in this country every year. And once a woman is diagnosed with heart disease, she’ll do worse and will more likely die from it than a man will.

In the US today, a woman having a heart attack will typically wait longer before presenting to an emergency room. She’ll be less likely to have the classic symptom of crushing chest pain, and will be less likely to receive a diagnostic electrocardiogram. Not surprisingly, she’ll be less likely to be diagnosed correctly. Even if she is, she’ll be less likely to receive all the life-saving therapies we now have to treat heart attacks. It gets worse. Even if the decision is made to give her these therapies, they will be given, on average, at a 13-minute time delay compared to a man.

Those of us who treat heart attacks have a saying: “Time is muscle.” And even if you control for all of these variables (getting the electrocardiogram, the correct diagnosis, and lifesaving therapies without the 13-minute time lag), a woman is still more likely to die from her heart attack than a man. The greatest discrepancy in survival rates—in other words, the highest death rate compared to men in the same age group—is among women ages 35-50. And we don’t know why.'

 To read the rest of Dr. Andersen's advice, click here.