And all three can cause angina in perfectly healthy women with perfectly healthy arteries. Preventing Twitchy Arteries Having a set of spastic coronary arteries that are likely to twitch shut at any moment may be not only disconcerting but disabling as well. Complicating the problem is the growing awareness among scientists that many substances in the body, such as estrogen, can constrict arteries under some circumstances and dilate them under others. Here are some suggestions. Once your doctor has proved that it's arterial constriction and not coronary artery disease that's provoking the angina, avoiding cigarettes and smoky rooms is one way to help keep your arteries open, says Dr. Bairey Merz.
Some doctors feel that women's arteries are actually more reactive to cigarette smoke than men's.
What's more, smoking actually provokes angina in different ways, says Jo Dalal, M.D., a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. It promotes the deposit of cholesterol within your coronary arteries, thereby narrowing the arteries themselves, and it triggers arterial spasms. Women who do have heart disease are put in real jeopardy by cigarette smoke. Identify the pressures in your life. A second way to prevent arterial spasm or reduce the angina caused by coronary artery disease is to identify everyday situations in which you feel pressured.