Most women are at greater risk of developing heart disease than previously thought, and both reproductive factors and menopause are being implicated as risk factors in developing adverse cardiovascular conditions, according to a new observational study.
 
The study, “Sex-Specific Reproductive Factors Augment Cardiovascular Disease Risk In Women: A Mendelian Randomization Study,” appears in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The authors said that factors including earlier first birth, higher number of live births, and earlier menopause are significantly associated with higher risk of atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke in women.
 
“The results support the emerging research focus on female-specific risk factors, stressing the importance of their routine evaluation in clinical risk stratification,” the authors wrote. “Additionally, the results highlight that close monitoring and early modification of cardiometabolic factors is a key strategy that will at least partly mitigate the increased cardiovascular risk conferred by these reproductive factors.”
 
The researchers, using a technique called Mendelian randomization, found a link between these cardiovascular events and the genes that predict the aforementioned reproductive factors. “Women are often mischaracterized as being at low risk for cardiovascular disease, leading to delays in diagnosis. Even when they are diagnosed, they tend to receive less targeted treatment than men,” states Dr. Maddalena Ardissino, of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College, London, and lead study author.
 
“Many of the previous studies on cardiovascular disease have focused on men, but our research shows that there are sex-specific factors that influence the risk for women,” Dr. Fu Siong Ng, senior author of the study, said.  
 
The new study is on trend with prior research on menopause. A review published in Circulation   found that in women transitioning through menopause, “their arteries become more vulnerable to disease, getting thicker and stiffer.” They note that reported findings “underline the significance of MT [menopause transition] as a time of accelerating CVD risk, thereby emphasizing the importance of monitoring women’s health during midlife, a critical window for implementing early intervention strategies to reduce CVD risk
 
On this, Gnosis by Lesaffre, the supplier of MenaQ7 Vitamin K2 as MK-7, stated that vitamin K2 may prove to be an important early risk modification tool for these factors. The company noted that supplementation with vitamin K2 as MK-7 at a dose of 180 mcg daily is associated with reduced arterial stiffness in women, in one study published in 2015 and another in 2020.
 
Vitamin K2 works in this way by activating a K-dependent protein, called Matrix Gla Protein (MGP), which improves arterial stiffness.
 
“Gnosis by Lesaffre works with world-renowned researchers to confirm the safe and effective health benefits of MenaQ7 Vitamin K2 as MK-7,” said Jean-Francois Jeanne, substantiation and applications team manager. “Elucidating the important mechanism of activating K-dependent proteins, including osteocalcin and MGP, was foundational to that work. Supplementing with K2 as MK-7 is a simple, natural tool for women to protect their heart and cardiovascular system. As new research emerges that confirms the high risk of heart disease in women, the greater the need for sustainable, natural and inexpensive tools such as vitamin K2 as MenaQ7 for protecting the cardiovascular structure and function in women as they age.”