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2008-09-02 19:32:55
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer 43 minutes ago
MUNICH, Germany - Women typically get heart disease much later than men, but
not if they smoke, researchers said Tuesday. In fact, women who smoke have
heart attacks nearly 14 years earlier than women who don't smoke, Norwegian
doctors reported in a study presented to the European Society of Cardiology.
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For men, the gap is not so dramatic; male smokers have heart attacks about six
years earlier than men who don't smoke.
"This is not a minor difference," said Dr. Silvia Priori, a cardiologist at the
Scientific Institute in Pavia, Italy. "Women need to realize they are losing
much more than men when they smoke," she said. Priori was not connected to the
research.
Dr. Morten Grundtvig and colleagues from the Innlandet Hospital Trust in
Lillehammer, Norway, based their study on data from 1,784 patients admitted for
a first heart attack at a hospital in Lillehammer.
Their study found that the men on average had their first heart attack at age
72 if they didn't smoke, and at 64 if they did.
Women in the study had their first heart attack at age 81 if they didn't smoke,
and at age 66 if they did.
After adjusting for other heart risk factors like blood pressure, cholesterol
and diabetes, researchers found that the difference for women was about 14
years and for men, about six years.
Previous studies looking at a possible gender difference have been
inconclusive.
Doctors have long suspected that female hormones protect women against heart
disease. Estrogen is thought to raise the levels of good cholesterol as well as
enabling blood vessel walls to relax more easily, thus lowering the chances of
a blockage.
Grundtvig said that smoking might make women go through menopause earlier,
leaving them less protected against a heart attack. With rising rates of
smoking in women compared with falling rates in men Grundtvig said that
doctors expect to see increased heart disease in women.
"Smoking might erase the natural advantage that women have," said Dr. Robert
Harrington, a professor of medicine at Duke University and spokesman for the
American College of Cardiology.
Doctors aren't yet sure if other cardiac risk factors like cholesterol and
obesity also affect women differently.
"The difference in how smoking affects women and men is profound," Harrington
said. "Unless women don't smoke or quit, they risk ending up with the same
terrible diseases as men, only at a much earlier age."