Heart disease is rising among women around the world. In Canada, it’s the leading cause of premature death, according to the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre.
Yet despite claiming more women’s lives than all forms of cancer combined, female heart disease awareness remains alarmingly low. This is because for decades, most of what we know about heart health has been based on research conducted on men. That knowledge gap isn’t just academic, it’s costing lives.
From misdiagnosed symptoms to delayed treatment, women’s heart health continues to be overlooked. And in marginalized communities, where language, income, and cultural barriers already limit access to care, the stakes are even higher.
Dr. Judy Luu wants to change that.
As Director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Prevention Program and the Cardiac MRI Research Program at McGill University Health Centre, Dr. Luu is working to rewrite how we understand, diagnose, and treat heart disease in women. She’s doing it through science, but also through advocacy, community outreach, and lived experiences.
In conversation with Canadian Family Offices, Dr. Luu opens up about the clinical blind spots she’s fighting to correct, her vision for a national movement in women’s heart health, and the grassroots momentum already building through initiatives like The Power Hub.
What are your current research goals at McGill related to women’s heart health?
I lead a multidisciplinary team focused on women’s heart health and cardiac MRI. Our goal is to improve how we diagnose and treat heart disease in women, particularly by looking at risk factors and reducing disparities in care.
What first opened your eyes to the disparity in women’s heart health?
Learning how women are getting turned away from life-saving medical care because their symptoms don’t match the profile. I always tell my students that a woman’s heart attack symptoms are only ‘atypical’ when compared to a man’s.
Even the classic symptoms we learn in medical school, chest pain radiating to the jaw or arm, were derived from studies that were 80 per cent male. So, when women present with indicators such as heartburn-like symptoms, fatigue, or back pain, they get misdiagnosed. That can be life-altering.
Why weren’t women included in earlier research?
In the 1970s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) excluded women of reproductive age from trials. It wasn’t until the 1990s that inclusion became mandated. Even now, women are underrepresented in research. Even though half of Canada’s population is female, women only make up about a third of cardiovascular studies. That lack of data affects how we assess risk, interpret symptoms, and prescribe treatment.
How does this lack of representation show up in clinical practice?
When women present with symptoms that don’t match the ‘classic’ profile, they’re often labelled as anxious or told it’s a panic attack or heartburn. I had a patient who came in with what she thought was heartburn. Unfortunately, she actually had a massive heart attack.
Women get turned away because their symptoms don’t match the profile. This mislabeling of symptoms is one of the things that we’re working to address through research and education.
Tell us more about your research on women and heart disease
There are nine major risk factors that lead to heart attacks: things like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking. But if you’re a woman under the age of 60, stress becomes one of the top five risk factors for a heart attack.
Chronic stress can be related to things like work-life balance, mental wellness, anxiety, depression, history of trauma, and discrimination. And what our initial research shows is that, despite men and women both reporting high levels of stress, a woman’s heart can show early inflammation-related markers detectable on cardiac MRI, whereas a man’s will not. We don’t fully know why right now, but that’s something we’re trying to unravel through our research.
If we can identify these mechanisms early, we can move from reactive treatment—when a woman already shows up with a heart attack—to a proactive and preventative strategy. That’s the key to changing the trajectory for women’s heart health.
Why is it harder to diagnose heart disease in women?
A woman’s heart is smaller compared to a man’s. And the pattern of heart disease is different. A woman is more likely to have small vessel disease, rather than disease of the big arteries. So when she presents with symptoms, the routine diagnostic testing we have today doesn’t pick these up. She can come back multiple times, having recurring symptoms that aren’t showing up in our stress testing or imaging.
What other misconceptions exist around women’s heart health?
There’s this myth that heart disease only affects older women. But I’ve treated patients in their 30s and 40s. My youngest patient is 18.
And while people think you need high cholesterol or a smoking history to be at risk, other things like pregnancy complications, early menopause, or autoimmune disease can also increase risk. And these female-specific risk factors are not routinely being asked for and identified.
What is clear is that women’s heart disease isn’t just a medical issue; it’s a community issue, a family issue, a social issue. Heart disease will affect either you or your family members. Your sister, your wife, your daughter, your grandma. Someone in your life is going to be affected.
That’s why we launched The POWER Hub. Because if we’re going to change this trajectory, we have to do it together. It’s about taking the research beyond the lab and into the lives of women who’ve been overlooked in cardiovascular care.
Tell us about The P.O.W.E.R Hub and how it’s improving heart disease in women
The P.O.W.E.R Hub stands for Prevention. Outreach. Wellness. Education. Research. It’s a multidisciplinary network of healthcare providers, researchers, nurses, individuals with lived experience, and community members committed to advancing equity and cardiovascular care.
Our ultimate goal is to empower women, families, and the medical community with the knowledge and support needed to improve heart health and well-being.
It’s a community-driven initiative. We do a lot of outreach in our events, where we go and talk about heart disease in communities or at local gyms. Through that medium, we recruit participants for our studies who aren’t traditionally included in cardiovascular research. Our aim is to have a more diversified understanding of the major risk factors driving heart disease.
Through these efforts, we work across five main pillars: advocacy, clinical expertise, research, innovation, and sustainability. Sustainability means building the next generation of leaders in the field. We want to empower younger women to take up the baton, to become experts in the field and carry this work forward.
Who is part of the Power Hub team?
We have my masters and Ph.D students, my research team here at McGill, and several volunteers, and we partner with community organizations like the Jamaica Association of Montreal and the Caribbean Coalition Network. It’s very grassroots and collaborative, but we’re looking to grow it into a non-profit. Our major focus right now is to build and develop a Women’s Health Prevention Centre here in Montreal.
What’s the vision for the Women’s Prevention Centre?
The Prevention Centre will offer women with heart concerns access to cardiologists, specialists, nurses, dietitians, and therapists—all in one place. Modeled after the world-renowned Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center in Los Angeles, it’s a reciprocal model, where yes, you get treated. But patients are also offered the opportunity to participate in research or join a clinical registry, allowing doctors to better understand heart disease in women.
How can improving women’s heart health improve the health of entire families?
Oftentimes, the woman is the centre of the family household. And by uplifting and empowering her, our hope is that the positive benefits will spread back to her family and her network. It’s not just about treating disease, it’s about helping women live healthier, longer lives and closing the gap on disparity, ultimately fostering wellness and longevity for everyone around her.
How did your own background shape this work?
I was born in a refugee camp in Indonesia. My parents were Vietnamese boat people. My father still doesn’t speak much English. That experience shaped my understanding of what it means to navigate a system that’s not built for you.
I’m so lucky to be where I am today. My career feels like a mission because I just know there has to be a change. My parents didn’t survive the boat journey, and I didn’t survive the refugee camp and grow up with limited resources just to get here and let it go to waste.
That’s why this work isn’t just scientific. It’s deeply personal. It’s about building a system that recognizes those who’ve historically been left out.
What’s your message to readers who want to make a difference?
This work is about equity. Heart disease will touch someone you love. Let’s make sure we’re ready, with data, with care and with community.
In honour of Dr. Luu’s work and in support of McGill University Health Centre’s groundbreaking Women’s Cardiovascular Program—PBY Capital invites single-family offices, multi-family offices and UHNW families to an evening of inspiration and insight. Featuring two generations from three Canadian families: Jim and David Hewitt, Pierre and Isabelle Sommers and Tina Naqvi-Rota and Aliya Rota. The event will be held Tuesday, October 28th at The Ritz-Carlton in Montreal. For more information please contact areda@pbycapital.com.
Disclaimer: This story was created by Canadian Family Offices’ commercial content division on behalf of PBY Capital, a member and content provider of this publication.
PBY Capital Limited is registered as an exempt market dealer, portfolio manager and investment fund manager with Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities, servicing family offices and their professionals. For more information, visit: www.pbycapital.com. The opinions and information provided in this article are solely those of the writer and are not to be construed as personal, legal, accounting, taxation, or investment advice, or as an endorsement of any entity.