According to the latest study, reducing the level of cholesterol may be helpful for women in lowering their risk of stroke.
Harvard scientists have discovered that even healthy women having no history of heart disease or stroke are at an elevated risk of experiencing stroke if they have high level of cholesterol. The research is published in the February 20 issue of Neurology. It demonstrates that these women were at over double risk of having a stroke than women with normal levels of cholesterol.
"The connection between cholesterol and coronary heart disease has been proven and replicated many times, however with stroke, it has not been equally clear," said Dr Tobias Kurth, the lead author of the research and an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Clearer connection in women
"Some connections between stroke and cholesterol have been observed in men and in populations at great risk for or with high cardiovascular events. The results of the study here for women are clearer, nevertheless, and prove that even in apparently healthy women, there’s a risk," he explained.
The research observed over 27 000 women from the United States and Puerto Rico who were part of the Women’s Health Study. The women were all health care providers, at the age of at least 45, and had no history of cardiovascular disease, cancer, or any other important disease. The investigators measured the women’s cholesterol levels at the outset of the research, and follow-up information was gathered for an average of eleven years.
Within this period, 282 strokes took place among the participating women, or, put another way, nine out of every 10 000 women experienced a stroke every year.
Except for of HDL (or "good") cholesterol, the researchers discovered that all cholesterols were strongly connected with a greater risk of ischemic stroke. Having high total cholesterol was associated with a 2.3-fold increase in the risk of stroke and high LDL (or "bad") cholesterol was connected with a 1.7-fold increase. The strongest connection was discovered between non-HDL cholesterol and stroke (an almost 2.5 times increased risk of experiencing an ischemic stroke).
"This confirms what the majority of us in the field expect," said Dr Matthew Fink, professor of neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College and chief of tinformedhe division of stroke and critical care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. "Those of us who care for patients treat them with statins to reduce the level of cholesterol with the supposition that this connection does exist. Nowadays, we have solid study to base our decisions on," he explained.
May not apply to everybody
Fink also said that whereas the research is reliable and dealt with a good database, its partakers do not necessarily represent the general population, due to the fact that they were mainly white and health care providers, likely meaning they were also better educated.
"Level of education s also correlated with health," Fink added. "If similar research was carried out looking at a cross section of the population, there may be even increased rates of stroke and other atherosclerotic complications. It is unknown."
Apart from this limitation, the authors of the research also emphasized that the levels of cholesterol were measured only once in the course of the whole study.
Still, both Fink and Kurth claim that the results of this study should be a wake-up call for women and men to start paying more attention to their cholesterol levels, even if they are feeling generally healthy. Changes in lifestyle such as a healthy diet, physical activity, preventing obesity, giving up smoking, and drinking alcohol in moderation can help prevent high cholesterol. The researchers explained that patients can turn to medicines if these interventions do not lower their numbers.
"Don’t wait until you become ill, experience a heart attack, stroke, or TIA [transient ischemic attack or "mini stroke"] before you begin to pay attention to your weight, diet, and physical activity. Start early, in your 30s and 40s" said Fink. "If the recognized risk factors for stroke are addressed in a successful way, you can decrease your risk by 50 to 80 per cent. We know what to do in order to reduce the risk - the problem is to get people to pay attention and to change their ways."
