The risk of cardiovascular disease in women may be underestimated

For a long time, we have thought that the risk of cardiovascular disease in women is lower than that in men However, a recent study has overturned this traditional idea According to an article recently published in the Journal of JAMA Cardiology, scientists from sedars Sinai - smidt Heart Research Institute in Los Angeles revealed that the pattern of age-related changes in blood vessel function in women is quite different from that in men In fact, women show signs of increased blood pressure earlier in their lives than men The findings could help explain why women develop specific cardiovascular diseases earlier than men "Our research not only confirms that women have different biological and physiological functions compared with men, but also explains why women are more likely to suffer from certain types of cardiovascular diseases and to develop the above symptoms at different stages of life." Susan Cheng, senior author of the article and director of public health research at the smidt Heart Institute, said Because heart disease, heart failure or stroke usually starts with high blood pressure, researchers comb through a large number of data to find clues and patterns about how blood pressure rises In the study, Cheng and colleagues collected blood pressure measurements from 32833 participants over a 43 year period of nearly 145000 times By collecting these data from the major communities in the country, the author made a systematic analysis of blood pressure based on gender Specifically, the researchers collected systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (map) and pulse pressure of participants at different ages, PP), and then, the authors compared the differences between the baseline and the blood pressure of men and women in different age groups, as well as the risk of cardiovascular disease in different gender groups The results showed that before middle age, women's blood pressure had reached men's level In addition, compared with the baseline blood pressure value (20 years old), women's blood pressure value increased significantly with age Further, by comparing the differences of various blood pressure values between male and female groups, it can be seen more intuitively that the high-speed rate of various blood pressure values (including diastolic pressure, systolic pressure, mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure) of female groups with age is significantly higher than that of male (above figure) By comparing the risk of cardiovascular disease between men and women, the authors found that the cumulative incidence rate of cardiovascular diseases was higher in male groups than in women Nevertheless, the risk of cardiovascular disease in women is not significantly lower than that in men By analyzing the blood pressure changes of different gender groups in the whole life process, the study shows that between 20-30 years old, women's blood pressure began to increase more than men's Previously, the traditional idea was that the onset time of cardiovascular disease in women was far behind that in men, and this discovery showed that some of the blood vessel changes in women group had progressed earlier than expected In these early years, the physiological differences based on gender would have an impact on the occurrence risk of heart disease and vascular disease in later years "Our data show that women's blood pressure rises significantly faster than men, which means that if we use the same blood pressure threshold criteria, women may have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease than men of the same age." Dr Christine Albert, founder of the smidt Heart Institute, said the new study should help guide clinicians and researchers to take different approaches to treating and studying women's cardiovascular health Based on these studies, we understand the fact that women are at high risk of cardiovascular disease So, how should we take measures to prevent cardiovascular disease? According to Mayo medicine, there are many risk factors for women's heart disease, including diabetes, stress, smoking, lack of exercise, menopause, pregnancy complications and inflammatory diseases Therefore, in order to prevent the occurrence of diseases, we should keep healthy work and rest, exercise and eating habits If we have the habit of smoking and drinking, we should give up as soon as possible In addition, we should keep a positive and optimistic attitude and regular physical examination If you have a previous heart attack, your doctor may recommend taking a small daily dose of aspirin to help prevent recurrence But aspirin increases the risk of bleeding Therefore, aspirin is not recommended daily for women who have never had a heart attack.