Cardiovascular disease in women

Sesso, H.D. et al.. Dietary lycopene, tomato-based food products and cardiovascular disease in women, J. Nutr, 133, 2336, 2003. 

Among carotenoids, lycopene was analyzed for the risk of cardiovascular disease in women in a nested case-control group deriving from the Women s Health Study, Higher... 

Sesso H, BuringJE, Norkus EB GazianoJM, Plasma lycopene, other carotenoids, and retinol and the risk of cardiovascular disease in women, AmJ Clin Nutr 2004 79 47-53,... 

Ridker PM, Cook NR, Lee EM, Gordon D, Gaziano JM, Manson JE et al. A randomized trial of low-dose aspirin in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in women. N Engl J Med 2005 352 1293-304. 

Ridker PM, Hennekens CH, et aL C-reactive protein and other markers of inflammation in the prediction of cardiovascular disease in women. N Engl f Med 2000 342 836-43. 

Sesso HD, Gaziano JM, Liu S, Buring JE. Flavonoid intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease in women. Am Clin Nutr. 2003 77 (6) 1400-1408. 

Sowers JR. Diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease in women. Arch Intern Med 1998 158 617-621. 

Schwartz J. 1991. Lead, blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease in men and women. Environ Health Perspect 91 71-75. 

Yochum L, Kushi LH, Meyer K and Folsom AR. 1999. Dietary flavonoid intake and risk of cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women. Am J Epidemiol 149 943-949. 

Hormone replacement therapy provides relief from vasomotor symptoms, decreases the risk of osteoporosis and decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease in post-menopausal women. 

Scheiber MD, Liu, JH, Subbiah, MTR, Rebar RW, Setchell KDR. Dietary inclusion of whole soy foods results in significant reductions in clinical risk factors for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease in normal postmenopausal women. Menopause 8, 384-392, 2001. 

Estrogens with or without progestins should not be used for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. The Women s Health Initiative (WHI) study reported increased risks of myocardial infarction, stroke, invasive breast cancer, pulmonary emboli, and deep vein thrombosis in postmenopausal women (50 to 19 years of age) during 5 years of treatment with oral conjugated estrogens (0.625 mg) combined with medroxyprogesterone acetate (2.5 mg) relative to placebo.62... 

Naessen T, Sjogren U, Bergquist J, Larsson M, Lind L, Kushnir MM (2010) Endogenous steroids measured by high-specificity liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and prevalent cardiovascular disease in 70-year-old men and women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 95 1889-1897... 

There has been considerable concern about the health effects of the pill, and many studies have been done. These are extremely powerful compounds and are taken by a large number of healthy women over an extended period, not to cure disease, but to prevent pregnancy. Although there was some evidence for heightened risk of cardiovascular disease in early studies, this risk decreased as the amount of estrogen in the pill was decreased. Today, the amount of estrogen has been reduced from 150 pg per pill for Enovid to 30 to 35 pg per pill. The progestin component has also been reduced, and the pill is a relatively safe method of birth control. 

Feigin VL, Wiebers DO, Nikitin YP et al. (1998). Risk factors for ischemic stroke in a Russian community a population-based case-control study. Stroke 29 34-39 Fine-Edelstein JS, Wolf PA, O Leary et al. (1994). Precursors of extracranial carotid atherosclerosis in the Framingham Study. Neurology 44 1046-1050 Gabriel SR, Carmona L, Roque M et al. (2005). Hormone replacement therapy for preventing cardiovascular disease in post-menopausal women. Cochrane Database Systems Review 2 CD002229... 

The intrinsic nature of women to put the needs of others, their family and friends, ahead of their own prevents them from seeking medical help at the first signs of cardiovascular disease. When women do present with such symptoms, doctors will still frequently either misdiagnose or dismiss them. Women have a higher rate of morbidity and mortality from heart attacks, strokes, angioplasties, and bypass surgeries, most likely because their disease has progressed far more than in men. For women of color, the statistics are much worse. 

Hypertension takes a greater toll on women than on men. The risk of repeat heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular events in women increases as blood pressure rises. In a prospective study of more than five thousand female health professionals with an average age of sixty-two, for each 10-point increase in systolic blood pressure a woman s cardiovascular disease risk increased by 9 percent. High blood pressure makes the heart work harder to pump blood throughout the body that, in turn, causes the heart to enlarge and lose efficiency over time. 

While cardiovascular disease statistics seem to be improving for the general population, those gains are not shared by diabetics. Quite to the contrary. Deaths from heart disease in women with diabetes have increased by 23 percent over the past thirty years, while there has been a 27 percent decrease in women without diabetes. Deaths for diabetic men have increased by 13 percent, but men without diabetes have enjoyed a 36 percent decrease. 

The World Health Organization defines anemia as a hemoglobin of less than 13g/dL in men and less than 12g/dL in women. It is clearly established that anemia is inevitable as CKD progresses. Therapies are available to correct anemia and therefore it is mandatory to assess a patient with CKD for anemia. The NKF-K/DOQI recommends that an estimated GFR of less than 60mL/min/1.73m should be the cutoff value for determining presence or absence of anemia. Detection is important since, left untreated, it causes many of the side effects of CKD, such as fatigue, breathlessness on exertion, intolerance to cold, and decreased exercise capacity. As indicated above, it is also a major factor in the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease in patients with CKD. 

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