Heart-gender link challenged
Tuesday September 6th, 2011
A woman's risk of heart disease may be nothing to do with her hormones, researchers report today.
The
analysis flies in the face of the belief that a woman's risk suddenly
increases when she undergoes the menopause.
This lay behind the use of hormone replacement therapy to maintain women's health - a practice now largely abandoned after side-effects emerged.
The new analysis suggests women's hearts and arteries age in a similar fashion to those of men.
The findings, due to be reported today in the British Medical Journal, come from an analysis of death statistics in England, Wales and in the USA over a 30 year period up to 1945.
The analysis showed that deaths from heart disease among women increased at a rate of about eight per cent a year throughout their life times.
Researcher Dr Dhananjay Vaidya, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA, said the findings for men were more surprising - with 30 per cent annual increases in risk up to the age of 45 and then the increase slowing to five per cent a year.
He said: "Instead of looking at menopause, what we should be looking at is what is happening biologically to men over time. We don't have an answer. Good research always creates more questions."
British Medical Journal September 6 2011
Tags: Heart Health | Men’s Health | North America | UK News | Women’s Health & Gynaecology
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