Feeling Constipated? You May Have Higher Risk for Heart Disease, suggests study

The researchers found 11.5% of people analyzed had experienced at least one major adverse cardiac event, with much higher rates in men (67.3% of all cases who had a cardiovascular event). Constipation rates overall were higher in women (55.9% of all cases).

More than 157,400 of the participants had high blood pressure and 8.6% of them were also diagnosed with constipation. Those with constipation “demonstrated a significantly increased risk of [major adverse cardiac events] compared with those with regular bowel habits,” the researchers wrote. This increased risk was adjusted for the use of constipating medications.

In addition, the researchers found genetic correlations in more than 9 million instances of genetic variations between constipation and major cardiac events, showing constipation shares 21% to 27% of genetic variants with cardiovascular disease. Genome analysis estimated constipation to be a heritable trait about 4% of the time.

Identifying the associations between constipation and heart disease can help scientists “discover new therapeutic interventions and implement more effective management strategies based on individual risk assessment in line with precision medicine principles,” the researchers wrote.

Reference:

Tenghao Zheng,Leticia Camargo Tavares,Mauro D’Amato, andFrancine Z. Marques, Constipation is associated with an increased risk of major adverse cardiac events in a UK population, American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00519.2024