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Ladies, if you have been bingeing on all things fattening and greasy all this while, it’s time you put a halt to it.
A recent study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, has revealed that more women die of heart failure in comparison to men.
About 50% of the heart failure cases among women are caused by having a heart attack. Having untreated high blood pressure levels over time can cause heart failure as they lead to progressive stiffening of the heart.
“Men and women have different biologies and this results in different types of the same heart diseases. It is about time to recognise these differences,” said study researcher Eva Gerdts from University of Bergen in Norway.
The common risk factors for heart diseases were compared for the study and it was analysed how these impact women and men differently. Among other things, they have focused on the sex differences in the effect of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Also read: Diabetics, take note! You might be at high risk of heart failure
According to The World Health Organization (WHO), 11% women and 15% men are obese (BMI over 30 kg/m2) globally.
“If we see this from a life span perspective, we can see that obesity increases with age, and that this trend is greater for women than men. Obesity increases the risk of having high blood pressure by a factor of three. This, in turn, increases the risk of heart disease,” Gerdts said.
The researchers said that there is a direct link of obesity with the increased risk of type-2 diabetes. Hence, a woman with diabetes has a much higher relative risk of heart complications and death than a man.
“We know that women with type-2 diabetes are usually obese and some of the fat is stored in the heart, which makes it more vulnerable for disease,” Gerdts added.
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When it comes to heart disease, many of the differences between woman and men are connected to the sex hormone, oestrogen.
The researchers explain that the hormone prevents the formation of connective tissue in the heart, which makes it harder for the heart to pump blood. In men, the effects are just the opposite.
“We see that obese men store oestrogen in their fat cells in the abdomen, which has a bad effect on the heart,” Gerdts said.
Women tend to lose oestrogen advantage after menopause. As per the study, their arteries become stiffer and more vulnerable for diseases.
“We think that this is part of the explanation for why high blood pressure seems to indicate higher risk of heart disease amongst women,” Gerdts said.
