Women’s Heart Rate Helps Detect Heart Disease Risk
U.S. researchers said on Wednesday that simply measuring a woman’s heart rate at rest could help predict her risk of heart attack or dying from heart disease.
The method offers doctors a simple, inexpensive way to monitor health risks in women, Reuters reported.
Postmenopausal women who had the highest resting heart rate were 26 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack or die from cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest rates, according to the study published in the British Medical Journal.
Studies in the past have linked resting heart rate to similar problems in men. But researchers said the relationship has been less certain for women, in part because trials did not include enough women to get a statistically significant result.
Judith Hsia, a researcher who led the study while at George Washington University, said you couldn’t assume it applies in women the same as men. "The onus is on the scientists to show it, and for heart rate”¦ now we have."
Heart disease, caused by fatty deposits that harden and block arteries, leading to high blood pressure that damages blood vessels, is the world’s leading cause of death.
The study measured the heart rates of 129,135 postmenopausal women with no history of heart problems. Resting heart rate measures beats per minute after sitting still to gauge how well the heart works when not stressed.
The researchers found that those women with resting heart rates of more than 76 beats per minute were 26 percent more likely to have a heart attack or die from heart disease than those with heart rates of 62 beats per minute or lower.
Hsia said people have to put in perspective that it is not as much as smoking, but it is still a clinically meaningful amount.
Other factors known to increase heart attack and disease risk such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking and drinking were accounted for and monitored for an average of nearly eight years.
The researchers said that although resting heart rate is usually lower among people who are physically fit, the measurement could help predict heart attack risk for women regardless of how active they are.
The study noted no correlation was found between resting heart rate and stroke risk.
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