Longen has long been known that some ways of living and health factors increase the risk of heart disease – but a new study underlines that they can affect women more than men.
Eight specific habits – diet, sleep, physical activity, smoking, body mass index, blood glucose, lipids and blood pressure – appear to have twice the impact of heart health for women compared to men, found researchers at the Sunnybrook Health Center in Toronto.
The findings will be presented at the annual scientific session of the American College of Cardiology in Agoikago on March 29-31 2025.
The study included data from over 175,000 Canadian adults without existing heart conditions that were enrolled in Ontario’s health study between 2009 and 2017, according to a press release.
The researchers analyzed the participants’ results for the eight risk factors and then traced the incidence of the seven results of heart disease for an 11-year period.
These results included heart attack, stroke, unstable angina (chest pain resulting from limited blood flow to the heart), peripheral arterial disease (narrowed blood vessels in the arms or feet), heart failure and coronary revascularization (procedures to open blocked arteries) and cardiovascular death.
In general, more women were found to have ideal health (9.1% compared to 4.8% of men).
They were also less likely to have poor health (21.9% compared to 30.5% of men).
However, women who had poor health showed that they had the risk of heart disease almost five times than women with ideal health, the study found.
In comparison, men with poor health had 2.5 times the risk of heart disease compared to men with ideal health.
Among intermediate health women, there was a risk 2.3 times higher than those with ideal health, compared to 1.6 times the risk for men with intermediate health.
“For the same level of health, our study shows that increased risk [related to each factor] It is higher in women than in men-it is not of an appropriate size, ”said the main author Maneesh Sud, MD, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Interior Cardiologist and Clinical Scientist at the Sunnybrook Health Center in Toronto, in release.
“We found that women tend to have better health than men, but the impact on results is different. The combination of these factors has a greater impact on women than in men.”
This is a new finding that has not been seen in other studies, the researcher added.
Based on the findings of the study, researchers concluded that “specific sex examination or risk assessment approaches” can more accurately predict the risk of people’s heart disease.
Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Fox News’ High Medical Analyst, was not included in the study, but shared his knowledge of the possible reasons for the findings.
“I think the reason why women are being found to be more sensitive to heart disease is due to the particular stresses of points in their lives that men do not divide, which include dramatic hormonal shifts that can maintain directly in cardiac function,” he told Fox News Digital.
Those milestones can include pregnancy, childbirth and menopause, the doctor noted.
“Keep in mind that estrogen is in some aspects of cardio defensive, and falls dramatically with menopause,” Siegel said. “And at the same time, cholesterol (a cardiac risk factor) increases, as it can weigh.”
“In general, women tend to have better health than men, with better diets, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure, but those in intermediate health had a higher risk of heart problems,” he continued.
Due to the limited population of the study, “only certain conclusions can be drawn,” Siegel added.
Dr. Bradley Serwer, a Maryland -based cardiologist and medical official in Vitalsolition, an Ingenovis health company that provides cardiovascular and anesthesiological services to hospitals across the country, said he needed specially created studies to focus on women’s cardiovascular risk.
“For many years, we have falsely assumed that traditional cardiovascular risk factors affected the populations in a similar way,” said Serwer, who was not involved in the study, told the Fox News Digital.
“We know that premenopausal women have a cardiovascular risk regulated by the lowest age, but this catches after menopause.”
More research is needed to understand the fundamental reasons of this phenomenon, noted the cardiologist.
“Is it attributed only to the protective effects of estrogen, or does it have other unknown contributors? I praise the authors of this study for their contributions, as they further challenge our conventional approaches to primary prevention in women.”
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