A new study suggests early medical intervention for blood pressure is more crucial for women than men.
Researchers have found a significant difference in the "mechanisms that cause high blood pressure" between females and males, a Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center news release reported.
"The medical community thought that high blood pressure was the same for both sexes and treatment was based on that premise," Carlos Ferrario, M.D., professor of surgery at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the study, said in the news release. "This is the first study to consider sex as an element in the selection of antihypertensive agents or base the choice of a specific drug on the various factors accounting for the elevation in blood pressure."
Heart disease has become the leading cause of death in women over the past 20 or 30 years, while mortality rates from cardiovascular problems have significantly declined in men. Today, heart disease is responsible for a third of all deaths in females.
A research team compared 100 men and women over the age of 53 who had untreated high blood pressure with no other health risks. The patients were tested how the heart and blood vessels elevated blood pressure by looking at hemodynamic ("forces involved in the circulation of the blood") and hormones.
The researchers found that women with high blood pressure had a 30 to 40 percent higher rate of cardiovascular disease than men of the same category. The team pinpointed "physiologic differences" in males and females including different types of hormones that influenced "pressure regulation."
"Our study findings suggest a need to better understand the female sex-specific underpinnings of the hypertensive processes to tailor optimal treatments for this vulnerable population," Ferrario said. "We need to evaluate new protocols - what drugs, in what combination and in what dosage - to treat women with high blood pressure."
