Men and women die differently. Is heart the reason?
Pic from UnSplash courtesy Siora Photography @siora18
This is an extension of our (Eva and Rajat) column this week in Hindustan Times Premium. Since a lot of research articles were referenced, we didn’t want to lose all the work, so mentioning them here.
Heart-related issues are one of the main causes of death in both men and women, yet they play out very differently.
Cardiovascular diseases kill 1 in 5 women, as compared to 1 in 40 with breast cancer, yet most today would think that the top killer for women is breast cancer, even though clearly it is not. (Pic: Canva)
The inception of this topic happened in 2012 when Rajat watched the below TedTalk by Dr. Merz. He couldn’t get it out of his head how women were (mis)diagnosed and (ill)treated using what was known about heart conditions in men. So when his partner in crime, Eva, suggested this topic, he was more than happy. But then started their journey into deep diving into this topic.
Reference (In no format, and in no particular order as it’s primarily intended for non-medical audience. Idea is just to have them all in one place so anyone interested in the topic can go through them. More selfishly, for ourselves to go back to at anytime.):
The single biggest health threat women face - Noel Bairey Merz | TEDxWomen 2011 (with transcript) • December 2011
Dr. C Noel Bairey Merz, MD. Cedars Senai.
The Yentl syndrome is alive and well. C. Noel Bairey Merz, European Heart Journal, Volume 32, Issue 11, June 2011, Pages 1313–1315, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehr083
Women Get the Same Exercise Benefits As Men, But With Less Effort - Los Angeles, Feb 19, 2024. Cedars Senai.
Behind the Findings: Why Do Women Gain More Benefit From Exercise Than Men? Katie Brind’Amour. 17 July 2024. Cedars Senai.
Why the Top Cause of Death for Women Has Been Ignored. Los Angeles, Feb 16, 2024. Cedars Senai.
Sex Differences in Association of Physical Activity With All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality. Ji, H, Gulati, M, Huang, T. et al. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2024 Feb, 83 (8) 783–793.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.12.019
The Prognostic Value of a Nomogram for Exercise Capacity in Women. Gulati M, Black HR, Shaw LJ, et al. New England Journal of Medicine. 2005;353(5):468–475.
Sex Differences in Cardiorespiratory Fitness and All-Cause Mortality: The Henry Ford ExercIse Testing (FIT) Project. Al-Mallah MH, Juraschek SP, Whelton S, Dardari ZA, Ehrman JK, Michos ED, Blumenthal RS, Nasir K, Qureshi WT, Brawner CA, Keteyian SJ, Blaha MJ. Mayo Clin Proc. 2016 Jun;91(6):755-62. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.04.002. Epub 2016 May 6. PMID: 27161032; PMCID: PMC5617114.
What every woman needs to know about her heart. Mather Hospital. Northwell Health.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Fact Sheets. 11 June 2021. World Health Organization.
About Women and Heart Disease. 15 May 2024. CDC
Gender medicine: effects of sex and gender on cardiovascular disease manifestation and outcomes. Regitz-Zagrosek, V., Gebhard, C. Nature Reviews Cardiology 20, 236–247 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-022-00797-4
Gender and CVD- Does It Really Matters? Suman S, Pravalika J, Manjula P, Farooq U. Curr Probl Cardiol. 2023 May;48(5):101604. doi: 10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2023.101604. Epub 2023 Jan 21. PMID: 36690310.
Gender differences in premature mortality for cardiovascular disease in India, 2017–18. Kundu et al. BMC Public Health (2023) 23:547 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15454-9
Trends in Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Rates and Excess Deaths, 2010−2022. Woodruff et al / American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2024;66(4):582−589
Time to tackle the physical activity gender gap. The Lancet Public Health, The Lancet Public Health, Volume 4, Issue 8, e360, August 2019.
What is driving gender inequalities in physical activity among adolescents? Guthold R, Willumsen J, Bull FC. J Sport Health Sci 2022;11:424-6.
