Cardiovascular Effects

Cardiovascular Effects

During reproductive years, women are "protected" from coronary heart disease, hence they lag behind men in the incidence of coronary heart disease by 10 years and in myocardial infarction and sudden death by 20 years.
A significant contribution to this protection can be due to higher high density liporotein (HDL) levels in younger women, an effect of estrogen.The average HDL-cholesterol in women is 55-60 mg/dl, a decrease of 10 mg/dl increases risk of coronary heart disease by 40-50%.

Total and low density cholesterol (bad lipids) levels are lower in premenopausal women compared to men and in post-menopausal women they rise rapidly. After menopause the risk of coronary heart disease doubles for women as the atherogenic lipids levels are higher than men.



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The ratio of total cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol is optimum (3.4) at ages 25 to 34 and increases to 4.7 at ages 75 to 89 years. When the ratio increases to 7.5 women have the same risk of coronary heart disease as men.

Estrogen also has favourable effect on the inner lining of blood vessels which keeps vessels dilated and prevents thrombosis.


Optimum Cholesterol / lipoprotein ratio

Total cholesterol - Less than 200 mg/dl
HDL - cholesterol - Greater than 50 mg/dl
LDL -cholesterol - Less than 130 mg/dl
Triglycerides - Less than 250 mg/dl


Risk factors for coronary disease

" Obesity in the trunk region"
" High blood pressure"
" Diabetes"
" Cigarette smoking"
" High levels of bad cholesterol"
" Sedentary lifestyle are high risk factors for heart disease"
" Triglycerides are also an important factor for coronary heart disease, however more so when associated with low HDL-cholesterol levels"