This is how Women Prevent Cardiovascular Disease

Stroke and heart attack? For many, this is the men's thing. Not correct! 'Women underestimate their risk of cardiovascular disease,' warns Prof. Dr. med. Vera Regitz-Zagrosek, cardiologist and director of the Institute for Gender Research in Medicine at the Charit©, Berlin. Why this is so and how you can prevent cardiovascular disease , read here.

Preventing Cardiovascular Disease: So dangerous is the carelessness of women

Many women think that estrogen protects vessels and thus the heart. 'Most people are unaware that protection stops after menopause and can not be restored by using artificial hormones,' says Prof. Regitz-Zagrosek. In strokes and heart failure women are even in greater danger than men to get them - and also heart attack and coronary heart disease they meet more frequently.

Even classical medicine has long known too little about women's hearts. The so-called 'gender medicine' now fills these gaps: New findings show what is especially useful to the female organ to prevent cardiovascular disease, but also harms. We present seven important results.

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1. Lactic acid bacteria lower high-pressure risk

In men, yogurt is not a blood pressure influencer. In women already: US studies have shown that five servings of yogurt (125 g each) per week reduce the high-pressure risk. If the high levels are already there, two portions reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks by 20 percent. According to molecular doctors from Berlin, yoghurt-lactic acid bacteria are behind the miracle effect: in the intestine they counterbalance the hypertensive effects of too much salt from the food.

2. False modesty is dangerous

If it comes to a heart attack, every minute counts to reopen the closed vessel. However, women over 65 need an average of four and a half hours to be in the emergency room after the first symptoms - men the same age one hour less! This was revealed by a study by the German Center for Cardiovascular Research. According to researchers, the reason for the delay is due to typical women's thoughts such as: 'It's getting better, I do not have to bother the ambulance right now.' They warn: false modesty hurts!

3. Cabbage keeps the vessels healthy

With age, the risk of atherosclerosis increases, as consequences threaten strokes and heart attacks. However, the dangerous thickening and hardening of the blood vessels counteracts vegetables, especially among women: among 954 participants in an Australian study, the wall of the carotid artery was thinner for vegetable fans than for green stuffed muffles. Kale protection offered cabbage like broccoli or cauliflower: Ten grams a day kept the veins the leanest! The antioxidants in it trap free radicals, thus preventing inflammatory processes in the arteries.

It is not only with the regular consumption of cabbage that cardiovascular diseases can be prevented. Discover more valuable foods that contain antioxidants.

4. Preeclampsia has long-term consequences

Anyone who has suffered from complications such as preeclampsia or high blood pressure during pregnancy should be careful: 'We now know that both in later life increase the likelihood of heart disease and hypertension.' The values ??should be checked regularly, 'says Prof. Regitz-Zagrosek. Also a high cholesterol level should be lowered - as well as the blood sugar. 'Diabetes poses a higher risk of coronary heart disease for women. Diabetics therefore require intensive treatment,' says Prof. Vera Regitz-Zagrosek.

5. Migraine harms women more

'Rheumatism and other diseases of the immune system can cause heart disease more often in women than in men,' says Prof. Vera Regitz-Zagrosek. This also applies to migraine, Danish scientists have now in a study with 50 000 mostly female migraineurs after. It increases the risk for z. As myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter and heart failure. Also poison for the heart: a strong increase of car exhaust in the air. Researchers at the University of Jena were able to show that the risk of heart attack doubled - but in both sexes.

6. Aspirin, unfortunately, does not help women

Aspirin protects the heart - but only that of men. 'In healthy women under the age of 65, aspirin does not help to prevent coronary heart disease,' says Regitz-Zagrosek. Cardiologists suspect that the drug is distributed differently in the body due to the lower muscle mass and body weight of women. The problem: 'Drug development in the cardiovascular area is very focused on men It is often done in males, and in drug trials more than a third of the participants are rarely women Therefore, some heart medications might work differently in women and men,.. Others, in turn, cause more side effects in women in the usual dosage, 'says Prof. Vera Regitz-Zagrosek.

7. Sitting is better than standing

Sitting in the office for a long time is a health killer for men only. If they are on the job, their cardiovascular risk is reduced by 39 percent. In contrast, women are up 80 percent, according to a Canadian study. The reason: women have more exhausting standing jobs, such as a nurse. For example, stress cardiomyopathy, triggered by a high level of stress hormones in the blood after stress, usually affects only women. 'Especially shortly after menopause, they are endangered. The syndrome is similar to the signs of a heart attack, but the coronary arteries remain open,' says Prof. Regitz-Zagrosek.

Informed means armed!

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