According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institute of Health, heart ailments are the number one killers of women in the United States. It also causes disability in women. In most of the cases of heart ailments, the pathways of the heart carrying blood become narrow and lead to heart attack. In two-thirds of cases, recovery is ruled out. Unfortunately, the older a woman gets, the risk of developing a heart disease also increases.
Women and the Risk of Heart Ailments
- Estrogen is the main hormone for women. This chemical molecule plays an essential role in several fundamental functions in a woman’s body.
- Researchers believe that this molecule has a positive influence on the working of the cells with which the heart is made.
- The protects the heart against the harmful effects of excess sugar levels in the blood and formation of its clots.
- But, after menopause, the situation changes for worse. Lack of this hormone places women at equal risk of developing heart diseases with men.
- Owing to this basic difference in the working of the body, any development in research which furthers our knowledge on prevention of heart ailments in women is welcome.
- In this context, researchers at the George Washington University School of Medicine found that the resting rate of a woman’s heart can predict the risk of developing diseases of this organ in the near future.
- The study findings were published in the February 4 2009 issue of BMJ.
- 129,135 healthy women without any heart ailment were the participants of this study which continued for a duration of eight years.
- The scientists found that women whose resting heart rate was 76 beats per minute compared to the normal rate of 62 heart beats per minute were at much higher risk of developing heart ailments.
- An estimation of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease in 2009 revealed that the prevalence rates of obesity in both men and women in the United States were equal at 36 percent.
- This information was very contextual and relevant as the mentioned research study of eight years, also culminated in the same year.
- Also, obesity is closely related to heart ailments and type 2 diabetes.
- The researchers then adjusted their findings by including and excluding diabetes, lack of physical activity and excess fat in the body. Even then the findings did not alter.
- Factors like tobacco use, depression, nervousness, alcohol use and obesity directly affect the resting rate of heart.
- When these factors were included in the study, the results were the same and women with increased heart rate were found to be at greater risk of developing heart diseases.
- Also, the relationship between high heart beat and heart disease was stronger in women below the age of 65 years.
- The determined risk was next only to the risk presented by smoking and type 2 diabetes.
- The researchers emphasized on the simplicity of this finding to predict the risk of heart disease in post menopausal women using heart beats instead of employing an advanced instrument the reach the same end.
References:
nlm.nih.gov
webmd.com
niddk.nih.gov
