Diabetic Women More At Stroke Risk Than Men

A new study suggests that women who are diabetic are more at a risk for stroke than men.
"All women, especially those over 55 years old (should) get their risk factors for heart disease screened and aggressively treated," said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
Dr. Steinbaum said that previous studies have found that women with diabetes are at a higher stroke risk when compared to men with diabetes.
"As women go through menopause, the loss of protective estrogen allows for the risk factors of cardiovascular disease- such as diabetes- to wreak havoc on the arteries," said Steinbaum, who is not affiliated with the new study.
Information from the study says that women living in developed countries are more likely to die from a stroke than men. In the United States, women account for 60 percent of deaths from strokes in 2010, the study authors said.
The study, published on February 24 in Diabetologia, was led by Dr. Gang Hu of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and involved analyzing data from 11,000 men and 19,000 women. During the average follow-up time of almost seven years, almost 3,000 cases of strokes occurred among the participants.
Depending on blood sugar control, women with diabetes were 19 to 42 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than those who do not have the disease. Researchers found that among women 55 and older, the risk was much higher when compared to younger women.
No association between diabetes and stroke risk was found in men.
"Diabetes poses a substantially greater increase in the risk of stroke among women than among men, which merits further investigation," the researchers concluded.
So why doesn't diabetes increase men's risk for stroke? Dr. Steinbaum believes the key lies in treatment.
"Men tend to receive more preventative care and medications to protect the arteries, such as aspirin and statins," she said. "The lack of continuity (in care) between the genders could be the reason for the discrepancy."
Steinbaum also believes that women with diabetes in general have more affiliated conditions, such as high cholesterol levels or high blood pressure.
"The best way to manage stroke is through prevention," she said. "For women, especially, where the link between elevated sugars and stroke is so clearly defined, and worse outcomes are more often seen, the emphasis needs to be on treating the risk factors and certainly implementing lifestyle options" to keep blood sugar under control.
The study authors agree that is a beneficial way of keeping the risk at bay. "More aggressive blood sugar treatments and better control of other risk factor levels in women with diabetes are likely to substantially reduce risk in this subgroup," Hu said in a press release.
Reference: WOWKTV
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