Susan Davis, IMS President, is delighted to introduce all members to the new Scientific Editor for Menopause Live and Our Menopause World, Dr Patrizia Monteleone. She comments, ‘Dr Monteleone is based in Pisa, Italy, and has a unique combination of clinical experience, medical writing and editing which makes her ideal for this role. Dr Monteleone joined the IMS on 1st October and will be focusing on delivering a high standard of research reviews and commentaries which we know you all consider one of the most useful and valued electronic services. Please welcome her to our Society and, if anyone feels they would like to write a commentary for Menopause Live on any new research, guidelines or recommendations, please feel free to contact her via the IMS secretariat’.
A substantial contribution to the knowledge on the evolution of major chronic diseases in women has come from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS). With a new analysis of the data of over 90,000 female candidates during a 30-year timespan, researchers of the NHS aimed at examining cardiovascular disease risk in women with metabolic health, i.e. absence of diagnosed diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, across different body mass index (BMI) categories [1]. Moreover, they verified the effect of the onset of metabolic disorders on cardiovascular risk in women who were healthy upon inclusion in the study [1]. BMI was defined as normal (18.5–24.9 kg/m2), overweight (BMI 25.0–29.9 kg/m2), and obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2). Health status was assessed every 2 years based on questionnaires. Investigated outcomes were fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction and stroke, as well as their combination as total cardiovascular disease. Results of the analysis showed that the risk of total cardiovascular disease was higher in women who were metabolically healthy overweight (hazard ratio (HR) 1.20) or obese (HR 1.39) than in women with metabolically healthy normal weight, but lower than that of women with pre-existing metabolic conditions across all BMI groups (HR 2.43 for normal weight, HR 2.61 for overweight, HR 3.15 for obese women). Metabolic health proved to be transient for most women as only 6% of obese, 7.9% of overweight and 15.4% of normal-weight subjects remained healthy over a 30-year follow-up. Women who converted to a metabolically unhealthy phenotype, especially those who developed diabetes (HR 1.29 for normal weight, HR 1.93 for overweight, HR 2.17 for obese women) or hypertension (HR 1.92 for normal weight, HR 1.87 for overweight, HR 2.03 for obese women), had a risk between that of women with stable metabolic health and that of women with pre-existing metabolic conditions; the risk was higher if these were long-standing. Incident hypercholesterolemia had a very slight effect on cardiovascular risk. In conclusion, the presence of metabolic disorders, especially hypertension and diabetes, confers the highest cardiovascular risk across all categories, which is proportional to BMI but also to their duration. Obesity, even in the absence of metabolic conditions, determines a cardiovascular risk which is higher than that for normal weight.
Author(s)
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Patrizia Monteleone
Citations
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Eckel N, Li Y, Kuxhaus O, Stefan N, Hu FB, Schulze MB. Transition from metabolic healthy to unhealthy phenotypes and association with cardiovascular disease risk across BMI categories in 90 257 women (the Nurses’ Health Study): 30 year follow-up from a prospective cohort study. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol 2018;6:714-24
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29859908 -
Booth JN 3rd, Li J, Zhang L, Chen L, Muntner P, Egan B. Trends in prehypertension and hypertension risk factors in US adults: 1999-2012. Hypertension 2017;70:275-84
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22683128 -
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29381992 -
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29427767 -
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30076075 -
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