Women's Health Alert

Here is an article I came across today. It underscores two points I would like to make regarding women's health. First, women are far more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease and death than breast, uterine or ovarian cancers. Second, please check your blood pressure;I encourage you to patronize your healthcare provider, but if you are nervous, at least do it yourself at a machine at the grocery store or pharmacy (they are pretty accurate). If your pressure is elevated according to what the machine says, please get professional evaluation. Modern medicine is pretty good at getting it reduced.


Even High-Normal Blood Pressure Carries CV Risk
Women with high-normal BP progressing to hypertension had CV risk similar to that of women with preexisting hypertension.


Hypertension is a key risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) disease, but little is known about CV risk in individuals with high-normal blood pressure that progresses to hypertension. To evaluate this relation, investigators stratified 40,000 healthy participants in the Women?s Health Study into four categories according to BP: optimal (<120/75 mm Hg), normal (120/75?129/84 mm Hg), high normal (130/85?139/89 mm Hg), and hypertension (140/90 mm Hg). During a 10-year follow-up, women reported BP, incident hypertension, and occurrence of CV events (myocardial infarction, stroke, or coronary revascularization). Event rates in the four BP categories were compared; multivariate analysis was adjusted for covariates such as age, smoking, diabetes, BMI, hypercholesterolemia, exercise, and alcohol consumption.

Women with hypertension at baseline had the highest age-adjusted CV event rate (4.32/1000 person-years). The CV event rate among women with high-normal BP at baseline was almost twice that of those with normal BP (2.92/1000 vs. 1.64/1000 person-years, respectively). About one third of the women who did not have hypertension at baseline developed the condition during the 10-year study period. Half the women with high-normal BP at baseline progressed to hypertension within 5 years, and two thirds did so within 10 years. Women who progressed to hypertension during the first 48 months had a 56% increased risk for a major CV event during the next 6 years compared with women who did not develop hypertension. The cohort of women with high-normal BP progressing to hypertension showed similar risk for major CV events as did women who were hypertensive at baseline.

Comment: These results show that women with high-normal BP have a substantially increased risk for progression to hypertension with an increased risk for major CV events over time. Thus, BP should be measured regularly so that women who develop hypertension can be identified promptly, as their risk for adverse outcomes increases soon thereafter. Clinicians should continue to strongly emphasize diet and exercise, the mainstays for preventing progression from high-normal BP to hypertension.