Estrogens protect heart health
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality in Spain. For this reason, experts have investigated the reasons that cause it and have discovered that women enjoy better protection against men due to two possible biological reasons: estrogen and pregnancy.
The study was carried out by the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital and the European University of Madrid. The experts counted with more than 40,000 patients with heart failure, the results contributed by 31 observational studies and more than three years to conclude it.
In this way, they could verify that the mortality rate between both sexes was very similar, but that after an adjustment in the data, centered on age, systolic function of the left ventricle, etiology or diabetes, it was discovered that Men had a 31 percent higher risk than women.
The protection of estrogen
Estrogens are the hormones responsible for the sexual characteristics of women. Further, have the mission to protect women from the onset of cardiovascular diseases until the arrival of postmenopause: stage in which, due to the lowering of estrogen, women have physical and metabolic changes that can cause an increase in hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, changes in weight ... and in this case, cardiovascular problems.
Pregnancy trains the heart of the woman
During the gestation period, the woman experiences a rise in heart rate, blood and ventricular volumes, cardiac output and ventricular hypertrophy. Reasons that make the woman is more accustomed and supports a situation of high stress better than a man.
The changes produced during pregnancy are very similar to those experienced by athletes. So, pregnancy could be considered a kind of training in which the woman prepares her heart to be able to resist situations of high myocardial stress.
Many of these changes produced by estrogen and pregnancy, are maintained for at least a year, so experts based their research on the positive effects of estrogen and pregnancy as responsible for the reduction in cardiovascular risk to which they are exposed. women throughout his life.
Noelia de Santiago Monteserín
