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s there a difference between women and men in the way they experience heart attacks? I'm told that's why they aren't so easily recognised in women.

Basically, yes. When women start to have heart trouble, they experience a different pattern of symptoms from men. When more than 500 women who had just had heart attacks were asked how they felt before the attack, 95% said that for more than a month beforehand they had been unusually tired, had difficulty sleeping, were breathless, had indigestion and were more than usually anxious. Although most men report chest pain before a heart attack, fewer than a third of the women (30%) did so health club. So if you are a woman in your 40s or older and have recently started to have these symptoms, have a check-up.

Is there a difference between women and men in the way they experience heart attacks? I'm told that's why they aren't so easily recognised in women.

Basically, yes. When women start to have heart trouble, they experience a different pattern of symptoms from men health club. When more than 500 women who had just had heart attacks were asked how they felt before the attack, 95% said that for more than a month beforehand they had been unusually tired, had difficulty sleeping, were breathless, had indigestion and were more than usually anxious. Although most men report chest pain before a heart attack, fewer than a third of the women (30%) did so. So if you are a woman in your 40s or older and have recently started to have these symptoms, have a check-up.

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I often lose concentration, forget things and make mistakes. It's not an age thing - I've been like this since my teens, health club and am now in my 40s. Am I at risk of Alzheimer's disease later?

There are plenty of people like you, and you are probably not in the early throes of some terrible disease. A Bristol study in 2003 of 4,673 people in their workplace found that around one person in eight was often forgetful, found it hard to concentrate on their work and made repeated mistakes. It also found that there were more accidents among smokers, a statistic that was put down to smokers being more likely to take risks. That, however, was surmise. It will be interesting to see if those rates have fallen now that smoking is not allowed at work.