In the 2003 movie, "Something's Gotta Give," Jack Nicholson's character, Harry, is seen rolling on the floor, clutching his chest and sweating profusely, barely able to speak while his eyes roll back in his head. Asked if his chest hurts, he gasps, "It's like an elephant's ..
. sitting on it." Welcome to heart attacks, Hollywood-style.
According to a new study, the film industry overwhelmingly portrays heart attacks in precisely this manner: white men, clutching their chests and collapsing. Women and people from underrepresented races and ethnicities are rarely seen having heart attacks on the big screen, nor are the typical symptoms of a heart attack – which are often much more subtle – accurately portrayed. The findings , published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, suggest the movie industry is contributing to public misconceptions surrounding heart attacks – and how they affect anyone other than white men.
"Given the crucial role popular media plays in shaping public understanding of health issues, this lack of representation could be contributing to the misunderstanding that cardiovascular disease is a man's disease," said the study's lead author, Dr. Kirsten Shaw, a cardiology fellow at Allina Health Minneapolis Heart Institute in Minnesota. "In reality, heart disease is the No.
1 killer of women in the U.S. and disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minority populations," she said.
"But they aren't seeing themselves represented in po.