Opvliegers
en bloeddruk.*
Uit een kleine Amerikaanse studie blijkt dat er een verband is tussen opvliegers (vapeurs) bij vrouwen in de overgang en bloeddruk. In de groep van 154 vrouwen bleken zij die regelmatig last hadden van opvliegers een duidelijk hogere bloeddruk te hebben. Verder onderzoek is nodig om de onderliggende mechanisme verder te bestuderen.
Hot
Flashes In Women Linked To High Blood Pressure
Women
who get hot flashes have higher blood pressure than those who don't, according
to a new study led by Weill Cornell Medical College.
High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease -- the latter being
responsible for half of all deaths among American women 50 and older.
"One-third of the women we studied reported having had hot flashes within
the past two weeks. Among these women, systolic blood pressure was significantly
higher -- even after adjusting for whether they were pre-menopausal, menopausal
or post-menopausal," says Dr. Linda Gerber, the study's senior author,
professor of public health and medicine and director of the biostatistics and
research methodology core at Weill Cornell Medical College. "Future
research will help us better understand the mechanisms underlying this
relationship and may help to identify potential interventions that would reduce
the impact of hot flashes on blood pressure."
While previous research has linked menopause to high blood pressure, the new
Weill Cornell study, published in the issue of Menopause: The Journal of the
North American Menopause Society, may be the first to link hot flashes to
high blood pressure.
Portable monitors recorded the blood pressure of 154 New York City women, aged
18 to 65 (mean age of 46), with no previous cardiovascular disease and either
mild hypertension or normal blood pressure. Fifty-one women reported
experiencing hot flashes. These women were found to have an age-adjusted mean
systolic awake blood pressure of 141 and a mean systolic sleep blood pressure of
129 -- compared to 132 and 119, respectively, for women not reporting hot
flashes (P=0.004 and 0.007). The group differences for systolic blood pressure
remained statistically significant after controlling for conventional
hypertension risk factors, race/ethnicity, age and body mass index (BMI).
Hot flashes are typically experienced as a feeling of intense heat with sweating
and rapid heartbeat, and usually last from two to 30 minutes on each occasion.
The event may be repeated a few times each week or up to a dozen times a day.
Hot flashes are thought to be caused by centrally increased activation of the
sympathetic nervous system.
Co-authors include Dr. Joseph E. Schwartz of SUNY-Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY)
and Weill Cornell Medical College; Dr. Lynnette Leidy Sievert of the University
of Massachusetts (Amherst); Katherine Warren, who was at Weill Cornell Medical
College; and Dr. Thomas G. Pickering of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia
University Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and
Surgeons.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
425 East 61st St., Fl. 7
New York, NY 10021
United States (Mei 2007) (Opm.:
Wellicht kan dus verlaging van de bloeddruk opvliegers
tegengaan.)