Women Who Experience Later Menopause Have Healthier Hearts: Study Finds
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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.
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