Currambine Family Practice

At Currambine Family Practice, we have doctors who are highly experienced in diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. In particular, Dr Tim Koh and Derrick Kuan have a special interest in heart disease and healthy hearts. You can be assured that you will be treated with professionalism and respect. Make an appointment with one of our award winning doctors.

Heart Disease

Heart disease kills 3 times as many women as breast cancer. In Australia, it’s the number one killer in women and there are often no signs that a heart attack will occur in the near future. For those that have a heart attack, half of them die before they even reach the hospital. This is why it’s important to undergo a heart health check-up to determine if you are at risk. There are several risk factors for heart disease that you can’t change. One of them is age. Once a woman reaches menopause, her risk for a heart attack increases. A family history of heart disease is another risk that you can't do anything about.

Fortunately, there are some risk factors that you can change. These include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugars, kidney disease, sleep apnea and depression. Your lifestyle also plays a role in your risk of having a heart attack. If you smoke, are overweight, don’t get a lot of exercise, or have a poor diet where you consume a lot of salt or saturated fat, your risk of having a heart attack is increased. Around 90% of women in Australia have at least one of these risk factors while over half of women have at least 2 of them. This is why it’s important for women to see their primary care doctor so that they can have a heart health check-up. Even if you are active, have a good diet, and are at a desirable weight, you can still be at risk for developing heart disease and having a heart attack. A heart health check-up is quick and only takes around 5 minutes, so there really is no reason to put it off.