{"id":16071,"date":"2013-12-31T09:17:54","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T14:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=16071"},"modified":"2013-12-31T12:14:53","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T17:14:53","slug":"heart-disease-linked-with-dementia-in-older-postmenopausal-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2013\/12\/heart-disease-linked-with-dementia-in-older-postmenopausal-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart disease linked with dementia in older postmenopausal women"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the American Heart Association media release:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/senior_meditation.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10467\" alt=\"senior meditating\" src=\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/senior_meditation.jpg\" width=\"285\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a>Heart disease may put older postmenopausal women at higher risk for decreased brain function such as dementia<\/strong>, according to new research in <em>Journal of the American Heart Association<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our study provides further new evidence that this relationship (between heart disease and dementia) does exist, especially among postmenopausal women,&#8221; said study author Bernhard Haring, M.D., M.P.H., clinical fellow in the Comprehensive Heart Failure Center and the Department of Internal Medicine I at the University of W\u00fcrzburg in Germany. &#8220;<strong>And many different types of heart disease or vascular disease are associated with declining brain function<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Researchers, conducting neurocognitive exams on <strong>nearly 6,500 U.S. women ages 65-79<\/strong> who had healthy brain function at the start of the study, found:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Postmenopausal women with heart disease or vascular disease were <strong>29 percent more likely to experience cognitive decline<\/strong> over time compared with women without heart disease.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>risk for cognitive decline was approximately double<\/strong> among women who had a heart attack compared with those who had not had a heart attack.<\/li>\n<li>Women who had heart bypass surgery, carotid endarterectomy (surgical removal of a blockage in a neck artery) or peripheral artery disease were at greater risk for cognitive decline.<\/li>\n<li>Risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes increased risk for cognitive decline over time.<\/li>\n<li>Obesity didn&#8217;t notably increase cognitive decline in elderly women.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Women with heart disease &#8212; in particular women who have had a heart attack, bypass surgery, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral vascular disease or carotid endarterectomy &#8212; should be monitored by their doctors for potential cognitive decline,&#8221; Haring said. &#8220;<strong>It is also very important to adequately manage heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dementia is an increasingly significant problem in developed countries, so researchers said more study is warranted on how preventing cardiovascular disease may preserve cognitive health.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Co-authors are Xiaoyan Leng, M.D., Ph.D.; Jennifer Robinson, M.D.; Karen C. Johnson, M.D., M.P.H.; Rebecca D. Jackson, M.D.; Rebecca Beyth, M.D., M.Sc.; Jean Wactawski-Wende, Ph.D.; Moritz Wyler von Ballmoos, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D.; Joseph S. Goveas, M.D.; Lewis H. Kuller, M.D., Dr.PH.; and Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Ph.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.<\/p>\n<p>The National Institutes of Health funded the study.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the American Heart Association media release: Heart disease may put older postmenopausal women at higher risk for decreased brain function such as dementia, according to new research in Journal&#8230; <a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2013\/12\/heart-disease-linked-with-dementia-in-older-postmenopausal-women\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[321,10,339,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16077,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16071\/revisions\/16077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}