Cardiovascular disease after menopause a growing epidemic, say experts

Chandigarh, March 30, 2014: As many as 100 senior citizens attended a workshop on ‘Heart disease risk in menopausal women’, held at Max Super Speciality Hospital (MSSH), Mohali today.

Speaking during occasion, Dr Anurag Sharma, Senior Consultant, Cardiology at MSSH, Mohali said that based on the observations  in our daily OPDs, cardiovascular diseases were rapidly taking a toll on women in our country. As per WHO report, cardio vascular diseases (CVDs) would be the largest cause of death and disability in India by 2020. The susceptibility ratio of men to women for CVD was 3:2 in younger age group, however after menopause the ratio become 1:1, he pointed out.
“As women matured and aged, their health related needs would change and  require preventative care requirements. Besides lifestyle modification, preventive health check-ups were very useful in early detection of all types of illnesses and risk factors. Studies have revealed that women were more prone to CADs because of their drastic changes in their body after menopause. Insufficient exercise, lack of sleep, poor eating habits and stress were the leading contributing factors to CVDs.”
Dr Sharma said, one major challenge was that the symptoms for heart disease were different in women. The common signs were shortness of breath, chest pain, sweating, nausea, dizziness and fatigue, and increase in belching after meals which often got ignored. This was quite contrary to conventional belief that due to oestrogen hormone 'women, especially menstruating ones, were safe from heart diseases. Lately, there has been a colossal rise in number of female cardiovascular patients. The trend might be attributed to changing lifestyle which was bringing such drastic hormonal changes that the heart protecting effect of oestrogen hormone was getting nullified, he said adding an overall increase in heart attacks among women was seen about 10 years after menopause
The loss of natural estrogen as women aged might contribute to the higher risks of heart disease seen after menopause. Experts believed that an improvement in lifestyle, cutting down on consumption of greasy food and cholesterol, hypertension should be brought under control.
Ironically Coronary heart disease (CHD) remained the major cause of mortality in women after menopause. At the time of menopause risk factors change to increase the risk of CHD.  In postmenopausal women, metabolic risk factors such as elevated triglyceride levels, decreased HDL-cholesterol levels and glucose abnormalities have been shown to have a greater CHD risk in women than men, Dr Sharma informed.
Thus it was important for women when they approached menopause to really take stock of their health, asserted Dr Sharma.