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Women are twice as likely to develop fatal heart complications than men, new research warns. The study found mental stress such as public speaking was more likely to cause myocardial ischemia, inadequate blood flow to the heart muscle, in young women who have had a heart attack compared to their male peers.

While previous studies showed a higher heart risk from mental stress for women, it wasn't clear to what extent.

The new research, published today by the American Heart Association, offers clearer evidence than ever that women may need more intensive care after a cardiac event than men, and mental stress may affect women's hearts more. '

The magnitude of the difference in ischemia between women and men despite similarities in risk factors and a tendency toward less severe coronary obstruction among women [surprised me],' Dr Viola Vaccarino, professor of medicine at Emory University who led the new research, told Daily Mail Online.

Myocardial ischemia, defined as inadequate blood flow to the heart muscle due to reduction in blood flow to the heart, can be caused by partial or complete blockage of the heart's arteries

For the study, researchers, led by Dr Vaccarino, collected data from 150 women and 156 men under the age of 61 who were hospitalized for heart attacks and 112 men and women who did not suffer heart attacks.

Among heart attack survivors, the clinical severity tended to be lower in women.

They measured how well the participants' blood vessels functioned at rest and 30 minutes after mental stress caused by a public speaking task that asked subjects to imagine a real-life stressful situation, in which a close relative had been mistreated in a nursing home and asked to make up a realistic story around this scenario

They found that young female heart attack survivors had twice the risk of experiencing myocardial ischemia induced by mental stress. There was a similar increase in the condition as a result of conventional stress such as exercise or drugs. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

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