Menopause Causes cholesterol Jump, Study Shows

Friday, December 11, 2009 (canstar) - doctors have known for years that risk of women develop heart disease rises after menopause, but they were not sure exactly why. It is not clear whether if the increased risk is due to the changes associated with menopause hormones, aging itself, or a combination of both.

Now we have at least a part of the answer: a new study shows beyond doubt that menopause, not the natural aging process, is responsible for a strong increase in cholesterol.

This seems to be true of all women, regardless of ethnic origin, according to the study, to be published next week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

"As they approach menopause, many, many women show a very striking increase in cholesterol levels, which in turn increases risk of heart disease later", explains the main author of the study, Karen a. Matthews, Ph.d., Professor of Psychiatry and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Over a period of 10 years, Matthews and his colleagues followed 1 054 United States women as they went through menopause. Each year, researchers tested participants in the study for cholesterol, the pressure blood and other risk factors for heart disease, such as insulin and blood glucose.

In almost all the women, the study concluded, cholesterol jumped at menopause. (Menopause usually occurs around age 50 years but may occur naturally earlier than 40 and no later than 60).

In the window two years surrounding their final menstrual period, LDL women average or bad cholesterol, rose by about 10.5 points, or about 9%. The average of the level of total cholesterol have also increased significantly, by approximately 6.5%.

Other risk factors, such as insulin and systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading), has also increased over the study, but they did at a steady rate, suggesting that increases - unlike those for cholesterol - were related to aging, not menopause. All factors measured in the study risk, cholesterol changes were the most spectacular.

Jumps in cholesterol reported in the study certainly have an impact on the health of the woman, said Vera Bittner, MD, a Professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study of Matthews.

"Change look not great, but given that the typical woman lives several decades after menopause, any adverse change become cumulative time, says Dr. Bittner." "". If someone had cholesterol levels in the lower ranges of normal, small change can not make a difference. But if someone's risk factors were already borderline in several categories, this increase may make them look at the edge and put them in a category of risk where treatment may be beneficial. »

First, the study does any measurable difference in the impact of menopause on cholesterol between ethnic groups.

Experts have been uncertain how ethnicity may affect the link between menopause and cardiovascular risk, because most of the research to date have done in the white women. Matthews and his colleagues were able to explore the role of ethnicity, because their research is part of the largest study of women health across the Nation (SWAN), which includes a significant number of African-American women, Hispanic and Asian American.

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