Hot Flashes in Women Are More Serious Than You Might Think
Hot flashes in women are commonly considered a benign symptom of
menopause, and so they are often disregarded by health professionals in
the diagnosis of other conditions. A recent study found that this
approach is wrong, as frequent hot flashes may point to a wildly
different type of health issue - cardiovascular problems. The
researchers link hot flashes and an increased risk of heart attack and
stroke, making them an important diagnostic tool.
Why is it only now that researchers started considering hot flashes a
manifestation of conditions other than menopause? The reason appears to
be that this symptom is observed exclusively in women, and much of what
we know about heart disease is modeled on male patients, so much so that
women have a 50% higher chance to be misdiagnosed following a heart
attack than men, according to the British Heart Foundation.
And this is a systemic issue, with medical professionals admitting that
they’re lacking the preventative tools for cardiovascular issues in
women. Hot flashes might be one such tool, with the researchers who
conducted the experiment pointing out that the recurrence of hot flashes
in women predicted their chance of suffering from a heart attack and
stroke in the future.
The study was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh and first
discussed at the North American Menopause Society, and it observed the
health of 3.300 participants over the course of 22 years. The research
is part of the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, which enrolled
African American, Hispanic, Asian American and white women aged 42-52
in the 1990s.
The study concluded that frequent and persistent hot flashes during the
menopausal transition increased a woman’s risk of suffering from
cardiovascular issues by 50-80%. Certainly, this is just the first step
in understanding how cardiovascular disease differs between men and
women, and hopefully, other large longitudinal studies like this one
will shed more light to the issue and help doctors develop effective
preventative interventions for women at risk of heart disease.
Meanwhile, what we as individuals can do to take care of our health
better is to stay active, eat healthy, and undergo health checks, such
as annual monitoring of cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood
sugar.