Saturday, October 24, 2015

Increased Risk of Heart Disease for Women

[woman clutching heart]

Heart disease is the primary cause of death in the US, where someone will have a heart attack every 34 seconds, and where a person will die from a heart disease-related event every minute. Scientists believe they have found a that is associated with an increased risk of heart attack or stroke in women, but not in men. The gene in question is called BCAR1, which is involved in many processes in the body that are affected by estrogen, the female sex hormone. The scientists, led by Prof. Steve Humphries of the British Heart Foundation, are from University College London and they studied a group of genes that have been linked to an increased risk of disease in the arteries. They looked at data from 4,000 men and women from across Europe, comparing their genes, artery thickness and artery health.

Two versions of the BCAR1 gene were examined and analyzed: the "GG" version, which is considered high risk for heart disease and a low risk "AA" version. 33% of the women studied had the high risk GG version of the BCAR1 gene. These women were found to have a 6.1% higher risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or diseased blood vessels, compared to the with those with the low risk version, who had a 2.5% risk of such an event. Men with the GG version did not seem to be affected. Dr. Shannon Amoils, of the BHF, recommends women to avoid smoking and eat healthily in order to reduce the risk of heart disease. 

I found this article to be very interesting and informative. I had no idea a single gene could play such a big part in such a harmful disease. I am most shocked about how this gene does not affect men, as it does with women. Men who have the GG version were not affected, but women were, which is very shocking. I hope these scientists carry on their research to develop a drug that combats this gene because having a disease in the most important organ of one's body is not good, and it could lead to death.

Original article here 


No comments:

Post a Comment