“Prevention is better than cure, and many risk factors for heart disease are preventable. This study shows the impact that lifestyle has on heart health in women of all ages, and younger women in particular,” said Sagar Dugani, MD, PhD, a hospital internal medicine practitioner at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Dugani is a co-first author of the study.
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Researchers analyzed more than 50 risk factors in 28,024 women who participated in the decades-long Women’s Health Study. Commonly used metrics like bad cholesterol and hemoglobin A1C had much weaker associations with CHD onset in women younger than 55 years than LPIR, a newer metric for insulin resistance.
Women under 55 who have obesity had about a fourfold-increased risk for coronary events.
With diabetes prevalence and its associated risk factors increasing dramatically and affecting more women than men, the study emphasizes the urgency of developing effective interventions.
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Source: Medindia
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