01/05/2026
Wow.
Over half of younger women’s heart attacks aren’t from clogged arteries—know the signs.
New research suggests that more than half of heart attacks in younger women are not caused by the classic problem of clogged arteries. In a Mayo Clinic analysis of 1,474 heart attack events in adults aged 65 or younger in Olmsted County, Minnesota, atherothrombosis (artery-blocking plaque rupture and clot) accounted for 75 percent of heart attacks in men but only 47 percent in women. Instead, 34 percent of heart attacks in women were attributed to supply/demand mismatch secondary myocardial infarctions, in which conditions such as anemia, infection, or other systemic stressors create an imbalance between the heart’s oxygen needs and its blood supply. Other important non-atherothrombotic causes included spontaneous coronary artery dissections (SCAD), embolisms, coronary spasm, and MINOCA (myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries), which collectively were as common as traditional plaque-related events in younger women.
These findings have major implications for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. The study showed that SSDM-related heart attacks were linked with the highest five-year all-cause mortality, likely because they occur in people already burdened by serious non-cardiac illness. SCAD, in particular, was frequently misdiagnosed as atherosclerotic disease, especially in women, raising the risk of inappropriate management. The authors argue that current risk calculators, such as the ASCVD score, often underestimate risk: nearly half of patients under 65 who went on to have a first heart attack would have been classified as low or borderline risk just two days before their event.
References (APA style)
Nield, D. (2025, December 28). Over 50% of heart attacks in younger women aren’t from clogged arteries. *ScienceAlert*.
Raphael, C. E., Gulati, R., et al. (2025). S*x differences in causes of myocardial infarction in adults ≤65 years. *Journal of the American College of Cardiology*.
