Diabetic women prone to heart disease

ALTHOUGH women are at a lower risk of coronary heart disease than men, diabetes reverses this female advantage thereby increasing the risk.

Diabetic women prone to heart disease

ALTHOUGH women are at a lower risk of coronary heart disease than men, diabetes reverses this female advantage thereby increasing the risk. This was especially observed in the cases of techies from IT companies and BPOs in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune.

According to Mayuri Panditrao, a PhD student from Epidemiology School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, recent analysis of 37 prospective studies concluded that the overall risk for fatal coronary heart disease is significantly higher in women than in men.

"I am doing further research on this issue which will certainly help public health efforts to reduce coronary heart disease, especially in women," she told MiD DAY.

Originally from Pune, Panditrao has had an illustrious career as a research fellow in United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. She feels this will automatically throw up data on the meaningful difference in the risk factor in the two genders.

"The underlying basis for the gender difference in the risk from diabetes that still remains speculative," she opined.

Referring to her work, Panditrao said that many theories have been proposed to account for the excess risk from diabetes in women. These differences include hormones, differences in coagulation and differences in obesity patterns.

"Women tend to have higher abdominal obesity and hypertension when compared to men," she said.
Reacting to Panditrao's findings, noted physician and diabetologist Dr C H Phansalkar said that diabetes itself is a major coronary risk factor in both the sexes.

"The rise of heart diseases will increase in diabetics irrespective of gender. More study is needed to draw any firm conclusion from her work," he added.