For many years it was thought that women just didn't have problems with heart attacks. To start with, most of the studies were conducted on men. Those that included women were weighted with women in their child-bearing years when heart disease risk is low. It is only recently that the link between estrogen depletion during menopause and the resulting rise in heart disease among menopausal women has been noted. Click here to challenge your assumptions about heart disease in women.
Essentially, during child-bearing, estrogen producing years, women are protected from heart disease. During peri-menopause and menopause, or after surgical menopause (removal or treatment that eliminates ovarian function prior to menopause), this protection - the "shield" - is suddenly dropped, and heart disease rates raise. Within a few years of menopause, at about age 55, the rate of heart disease among women, including heart attack and stroke, equals that of men.
Unfortunately, long-term research is only now beginning, and the medical community only now becoming aware of the alarming statistics. As a result, women don't receive the same heart care consideration or treatment as men, and as a result, die more frequently - especially from a first heart attack.
Risk factors related to heart disease include:
- estrogen deficiency
- hypertension
- obesity (20% more than recommended for your age and height)
- sedentary lifestyle
- cigarette smoking
- diabetes
- family history of heart disease
- heavy stress in your life
- unfavorable lipid profile (cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides)
Especially important for women to note are:
- low HDL puts women at greater risk than men.
- high triglycerides combined with low HDL constitute an independent risk factor for women, but not for men.
- high triglycerides in diabetes raise the risk of cardiovascular disease 3-fold in men, but 200-fold in women.
To learn more about heart disease and how to prevent it, visit Prairie Public's Healthy Heart web page.
You see it in ever nursing home. You notice it on the street. One of the first signs of aging - the stooped posture of a women with osteoporosis. As bone mass and density decline, you loose inches, you loose flexibility, spinal vertebrae collapse.
Osteoporosis literally means "porous bones." From birth through early adulthood, bone is growing and renewing itself. Older, worn out bone is replaced by new, strong bone. At about age 35, bone loss exceeds new bone production. After menopause, when a woman's body is deprived of the bone-preserving effects of estrogen, the rate of bone loss accelerates rapidly. Women, who account for 80% of osteoporosis cases, can lose up to 7% of bone mass in a single year. If the loss is severe or continues over a long period, the bones become too fragile to withstand everyday physical stresses. Even a strain, bump or fall can cause a fracture or collapse of a vertebrae.
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Of the 25 million Americans with osteoporosis, 80% of them are women. The National Osteoporosis Foundation estimates that half of all women over fifty will suffer an osteoporotic fracture sometime in their life. Postmenopausal women sustain 250,000 hip fractures annually. As many as 20% are dead within three months from surgical complications and the heart/lung effects of the sedentary lifestyle that follows fractures. Half of the survivors are never able to live independently again because of their inability to walk and move normally. That's the bad news. |
The good news is that osteoporosis is mostly preventable. Today's statistics will change dramatically as baby-boomer women take charge of the elements of "the change" that threaten both health and quality of life. Click here to learn how you can prevent osteporosis.
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© 1998 Prairie Public Broadcasting, Inc.