Hot Flashes in Women Linked to High Blood Pressure

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Hot Flashes in Women Linked to High Blood Pressure

Apr 21, 2007 11:44 PDT

 

 

 

Women who get hot flashes have higher blood pressure than those who

don't, according to a new study led by Weill Cornell Medical

College.

 

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease — the

latter being responsible for half of all deaths among American women

50

and older.

 

" One-third of the women we studied reported having had hot flashes

within the past two weeks. Among these women, systolic blood

pressure

was significantly higher — even after adjusting for whether they

were

pre-menopausal, menopausal, or post-menopausal, " says Dr. Linda

Gerber,

the study's senior author, professor of public health and medicine

and

director of the biostatistics and research methodology core at Weill

Cornell Medical College. " Future research will help us better

understand

the mechanisms underlying this relationship and may help to identify

potential interventions that would reduce the impact of hot flashes

on

blood pressure. "

 

While previous research has linked menopause to high blood pressure,

the

new Weill Cornell study, published in the March/April issue of

Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society, may

be

the first to link hot flashes to high blood pressure.

 

Portable monitors recorded the blood pressure of 154 New York City

women, aged 18 to 65 (mean age of 46), with no previous

cardiovascular

disease and either mild hypertension or normal blood pressure. Fifty-

one

women reported experiencing hot flashes. These women were found to

have

an age-adjusted mean systolic awake blood pressure of 141 and a mean

systolic sleep blood pressure of 129 — compared to 132 and 119,

respectively, for women not reporting hot flashes (P=0.004 and

0.007).

The group differences for systolic blood pressure remained

statistically

significant after controlling for conventional hypertension risk

factors, race/ethnicity, age and body mass index (BMI).

 

Hot flashes are typically experienced as a feeling of intense heat

with

sweating and rapid heartbeat, and usually last from two to 30

minutes on

each occasion. The event may be repeated a few times each week or up

to

a dozen times a day. Hot flashes are thought to be caused by

centrally

increased activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

 

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets