Women smokers, who undergo an early menopause, are at a higher risk of suffering a heart failure, a new study finds.
Women, who go through menopause between 40-45 years of age, are more likely to suffer a heart failure. Smoking habits elevate this risk even further, a new study found.
Previous studies have already linked early menopause to atherosclerotic heart disease. This is the first study that has linked it to heart failure, the inability of the heart to pump adequate blood to the body.
After studying the data of 22,000 post-menopausal women and health surveys of some 90,000 women in the Swedish Mammography Cohort, researchers found that women wo undergo menopause between 40-45 years of age are at a 40 percent higher risk of heart failure than women who experience menopause after the age of 50. Researchers also noted that every one year delay in menopause decreases heart failure risk by approximately 2 percent.
"Menopause, early or late, is always a good time to take more steps to reduce heart disease risk through exercise, a healthy diet, weight loss, and quitting smoking," said Margery Gass, NAMS Executive Director, in a statement. "This thought-provoking study should encourage more research to find out how early menopause and heart failure are linked. And, whether the factors that cause heart failure also cause ovarian failure?"
Although it has been established that women who smoke, experience menopause earlier than those who don't - researchers were not able to determine the exact mechanism behind early menopause-heart failure connection. One of the reasons was because, researchers noted, women who had quit smoking but experienced early menopause had the same elevated heart failure risks as women smokers who experienced menopause at the same time.
Many studies have linked low levels of vitamin D in the blood to menopause symptoms, but a recent study found no link between the two. Common menopause symptoms include hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbance, concentration, and forgetfulness.
The current study was published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).
