Despite the fact that men are more likely than women to develop cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke, as well as risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and smoking in middle age, a recent study reveals that the harmful impact of most of these disorders on thinking and memory abilities is greater in women. The findings had published in the online issue of Neurology on January 5, 2022.
‘Our results show that midlife cardiovascular conditions and risk factors were associated with midlife cognitive decline, but the association is stronger for women. Specifically, we found that certain cardiovascular conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and dyslipidemia, which is abnormally high levels of fats in the blood, had stronger associations with cognitive decline in women compared to men’, said study author Michelle M. Mielke, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study looked at 1,857 adults without dementia who were 50 to 69 years old at the time. For an average of three years, people were given a clinical examination every 15 months. Nine memory, language, executive function, and spatial abilities tests were combined to provide a composite cognitive score.
At least one cardiovascular ailment or risk factor was present in 1,465, or 79 percent, of the individuals. Men had more risk factors than women, with 83 percent having at least one, compared to 75 percent for women. They also discovered that diabetes, heart disease, and excessively high blood fat levels were solely linked to a reduction in language scores in women.
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‘More research is needed to examine sex differences in the relationships between the cardiovascular risk factors and specific biomarkers of brain disease like white matter hyperintensities, areas of dead tissue and overall white matter integrity in midlife’, Mielke said.
The results of the study may not generalise to other demographics because the participants were all from one Minnesota county. The research does not prove that women with cardiovascular risk factors would have cognitive deterioration in their midlife, but it does reveal a link.
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