Heart clue to why women live longer
Tuesday January 11, 2005
Sam Jones
The Guardian — A group of scientists may finally have solved the mystery of why wives outlive their husbands after discovering that women’s hearts age better than men’s.
Researchers found that while a man’s heart can lose up to a quarter of its pumping power between 18 and 70, the heart of a healthy 70-year-old woman can perform almost as well as it did when she was 20.
On average, British women live five years longer than British men, and women over 60 are now the fastest-growing group in society.
A team from John Moores University in Liverpool, led by Professor David Goldspink, spent two years studying ageing in more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80.
“By simultaneously studying both men and women, we have been able to look for either similarities or differences between the two sexes as they get older,” said Prof Goldspink.
“We now have a much clearer holistic picture of changes that take place in the human body throughout our life cycle.”
However, he stressed it was not all bad news for men and that regular exercise could make a huge difference.
In a related study, he found the hearts of male athletes aged 50 to 70 were as strong as those of inactive 20-year-old male university students.
“If men work at it, they can preserve the power and performance of their ageing hearts,” he said.
He also warned women not to be complacent, and advised them to exercise frequently too.
The study also showed that large arteries become stiffer and less elastic with age, causing blood pressure to increase both at rest and during exercise. Blood flow to the muscles and skin of limbs also progressively decreased, the researchers found. This occurred earlier in men, but women soon caught up after the menopause.
Prof Goldspink said people needed to be better educated on what kind of exercise they need to do and how often. “Once we can tell them precisely what health benefits they can gain in response to different levels of physical activity, they can then make a realistic and informed choice for themselves,” he said.
Belinda Linden, head of medical information at the British Heart Foundation, said cardiac health could be influenced by everything from body weight and blood pressure to diet and diabetes.
“We will wait for final results to see whether the study has addressed these, or any other variables that could affect the heart’s efficiency … ” she said.
“The authors discuss the issue of inactivity among men and yet in the UK population women are less active than men.
“The numbers … may not be adequate to provide a conclusive interpretation …
“Women tend to develop coronary heart disease about 10 years later than men – the differences between men and women in this research may be linked with the UK trends in heart disease.”