For some women, menopause is more than annoying hot flashes and mood swings. Newly published research suggests that those who accumulate fat in their abdomen during menopause are at higher risk for heart disease.
It’s an age-old complaint for many middle-aged women. No matter what you do, the extra weight seems to be settling in the middle. Scientists say this could be harmful to their heart health.
“We were able to identify the point in time when women begin to accumulate fat in the abdomen, especially women begin to accumulate two years before their last menstruation,” says Samar R. El Khoudary, Ph.D., MPH, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and an expert in women’s health at the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health, Ivanhoe said.
With the help of CT scans, the scientists measure the fatty tissue or the fat surrounding the organs in a woman’s abdomen. The researchers found that belly fat increased by about eight percent per year.
El Khoudary said, “This increase during this period increases the risk of developing carotid artery atherosclerosis, especially women.”
The researchers also used ultrasound to measure the thickness of the carotid artery and found that for every 20 percent increase in abdominal fat, the thickness of the carotid artery grew by two percent, a leading indicator of heart disease. El Khoudary says the sooner women know their risk, the sooner they can change their lifestyle to reduce their risk of heart disease.
Researchers say their results also suggest that waist circumference monitoring at home or in a doctor’s office could be an important measure. Professor El Khoudary says women can use a tape measure at the waist about an inch below the bottom rib. According to the American Heart Association, a waistline of 35 inches or more in women could be an early signal of risk of heart disease.
Contributors to this news report are: Cyndy McGrath, producer; Kirk Manson, videographer; Roque Correa, editor.
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