Women Who Experience Later Menopause Have Healthier Hearts: Study Finds
Women who go through menopause later in life have healthier blood vessels for years to come than those who go through it earlier, according to a study published in the American Heart Association Journal Circulation Research.
Researchers assessed the vascular health of 92 women, looking specifically at a measure called brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), or how well their brachial artery — the main blood vessel in the upper arm — dilates with increased blood flow.
The team also measured the health of the women’s mitochondria, the energy powerhouses in the cells lining their blood vessels. And they took a close look at what molecules were coursing through their bloodstreams.
All the postmenopausal women had significantly worse arterial function than their premenopausal counterparts. That’s in part because, as people age, they produce less nitric oxide, a compound that helps blood vessels dilate and keeps them from getting stiff and developing plaque. Mitochondria in cells lining the blood vessels also become dysfunctional with age and generate more damaging molecules called free radicals, explained first author Sanna Darvish, a PhD candidate in the Department of Integrative Physiology.
The study found that vascular function was only 24% worse in the late-onset menopause group compared to the premenopausal group, while those in the normal-onset group had 51% worse vascular health.
Remarkably, such differences between the groups persisted five years or more after the women went through menopause, with the late-onset group still having 44% better vascular function than the normal onset group. Preserved vascular health in the late-onset group was related to better functioning of mitochondria which produced fewer free radicals, the study found. The circulating blood of the two groups also looked different, with the late-onset group showing “more favorable” levels of 15 different lipid or fat-related metabolites in their blood.
Reference: Darvish, S., Murray, K. O., Ludwig, K. R., Avalani, K. H., Craighead, D. H., Freeberg, K. A., ... & Rossman, M. J. (2024). Preservation of Vascular Endothelial Function in Late-Onset Postmenopausal Women. Circulation Research.
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