Young Women Experiencing Heart Attack Could Be Hopeful

reporter 1222 — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 05:19:53 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Premenopausal women have good long-term outcomes after a heart attack, according to late breaking research presented at European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2020.

“Previous research has shown that women are more likely to die after a heart attack than men,” said principal investigator Professor Diego Ardissino of Parma University Hospital, Italy, eurekalert.org reported.

“Our study shows that this does not hold true before the menopause, when women are still exposed to estrogen, a hormone that protects against heart disease.”

The Italian Genetic Study on Early-onset Myocardial Infarction compared outcomes of women and men under 45 who had a heart attack. The study included 2,000 patients (1,778 men and 222 women) who presented to hospital with a heart attack before the age of 45 at 125 Italian coronary care units between 1998 and 2002. The primary endpoint was a composite of recurrent heart attack, stroke, or death from cardiovascular disease.

During a median follow-up of 20 years, the primary composite endpoint occurred in 25.7 percent of women compared to 37.0 percent of men.

When the components of the primary endpoint were analyzed separately, the researchers found that second heart attacks were less frequent in women compared to men. However, women were more likely to have a stroke compared to men.

Smoking, high blood lipids and diabetes were more frequent in men compared to women.

Ardissino said the better prognosis in premenopausal women compared to men was likely related to different mechanisms behind the heart attacks. Women were more than twice as likely to have healthy arteries than men, but coronary artery dissection (a tear in a blood vessel supplying the heart) was more frequent in women.

He said: “In men, coronary events were mostly due to blocked arteries, while in women they had other causes such as coronary dissection which is known to have a more favorable prognosis and a lower risk of recurrence.”

At discharge from hospital, men were more likely than women to be prescribed medications to protect against second heart attacks, including beta-blockers, aspirin, and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). The likelihood of statin treatment was similar in men and women.

Ardissino said: “The disparity in prescribing may be due to the lower burden of coronary artery disease found in women in the study. It could also relate to the general under-prescribing of medication for women compared to men seen in other studies of acute cardiac events.”

He concluded: “In contrast to the prevailing literature, women experiencing an early-onset heart attack have favorable long-term outcomes compared to men, despite being prescribed fewer preventive medications.”

The post Young Women Experiencing Heart Attack Could Be Hopeful appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Scientists Discover Physical Activity Cuts Heart Disease Risks

reporter 1222 — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 09:29:02 +0000

Scientists Discover Physical Activity Cuts Heart Disease Risks

According To Iran News, Exercising regularly could decrease inflammation and help protect against heart disease, a new study suggests.

In research conducted on mice, scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at one group of rodents that ran on treadmills daily and one group that did not, DailyMail reported.

The mice that got exercise every night had lower levels of a type of immune system cell that can turn into white blood cells.

This lowered their risk of chronic inflammation, which contributes to the formation of plaques that block the arteries and can cause cardiovascular disease.

Heart disease is currently the number one killer in every country including the US.

According to the National Institutes of Health, the risk for coronary heart disease begins increasing for men at age 45 and for women at age 55.

To improve overall heart health, the American Heart Association recommends exercising each week at a moderate intensity for at least 150 minutes a week or at a high intensity for at least 75 minutes a week.

For the study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, the team studied mice that were split into two groups.

One group was put into cages with treadmills, where some of the rodents ran as many as six miles per night.

The second group was put into cages without treadmills. After six weeks, the two groups were compared.

Researchers found that the mice that ran on treadmills had reduced levels of cells found in the bone marrow known as hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs).

HSPCs have the ability to turn into any type of blood cell, including white blood cells called leukocytes, which increase inflammation.

helps plaques grow, which can clog arteries and trigger blood clots, and lead to heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

‘We were surprised by how much mice loved to run,’ lead author Dr Matthias Nahrendorf of the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital told DailyMail.com.

‘But we were also surprised that the effects of running stayed with the mice for a while, for as long as two to three weeks after [the end of the study period].’

Additionally, researchers found the mice that exercised produced less leptin, which is a hormone responsible for controlling appetite.

Previous studies conducted by the team showed high levels of leptin and leukocytes in humans that had cardiovascular disease linked to inflammation.

Dr Nahrendorf said the results shows the importance of exercise, but also how this could lead to new therapies for preventing heart attacks and strokes

‘In the future, we want to look for pathways that, like exercise, reduce the overproduction of white blood cells, because that reduces inflammation,’ he said.

‘I’m not saying we would have a pill but if we could look for a way to reduce inflammation – hit the pathways with a drug – that would be the holy grail in anti-inflammatory therapy.’

The post Scientists Discover Physical Activity Cuts Heart Disease Risks appeared first on Iran News Daily.

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Young Women Experiencing Heart Attack Could Be Hopeful

Scientists Discover Physical Activity Cuts Heart Disease Risks