'Good' cholesterol not as beneficial in menopausal women: study

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During the annual meeting of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) in Las Vegas last week, a new study was presented by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health claiming that high density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good cholesterol" has been found to be ineffective in protecting women against atherosclerosis as they transition through menopause, EurekAlert reports.

Atherosclerosis is defined by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute as a disease in which plaque buildup occurs inside the arteries. This disease may lead to other serious health problems such as heart attack, stroke, or death. HDL has been documented as beneficial in protecting the arteries against hardening, however, medical professionals have theorized that such benefits are decline during menopause transition due to hormonal changes, most specifically estradiol reduction. In fact, the study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health determined how HDL quality is affected by menopause, specifically its ability to help prevent plaque from building up in the arteries.

Researchers analyzed 225 women in their mid and late 40s, who all had up to 5 measures of plaque buildup in the span of at most 9 years of follow up. At the time of the baseline scan, all the women were diagnosed as not having any cardiovascular diseases.

According to lead author Dr. Samar El Khoudary, Assistant Professor in Pitt Public Health's Department of Epidemiology, "What we found is that, as women transition through menopause, increases in good cholesterol were actually associated with greater plaque buildup. These findings suggest that the quality of HDL may be altered over the menopausal transition, thus rendering it ineffective in delivering the expected cardiac benefits."

According to NAMS executive director Dr. Wulf Utian, more research must be conducted to determine how lipids are affected by menopause.

Dr. Utian said, "There is such limited data available on this important topic. We need to better understand how all lipids are impacted in order to protect patients from heart disease, which is the number one killer of women in this country."

According to WebMD, a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh has found that menopausal women who experience a significant number of hot flashes may be at higher risk for early-stage heart disease. This is the first study to link the frequency of hot flashes to the thickness of the inner layers of the carotid arteries, which deliver blood to the brain.

Medscape reports that according to lead researcher Dr. Rebecca Thurston, "Women with high levels of hot flashes had significantly higher intima-media thickness compared with women with low levels of hot flashes."

Dr. Thurston further explained, "Physiologic hot flashes explained more variance in intima-media thickness than any of the other risk factors. Frequent hot flashes may be a marker of underlying risk, although it is not known whether treating the hot flashes will have any impact on underlying cardiovascular risk."

Though the results of this study is said to be "interpreted with caution", it is the first to determine a relationship between intima-media thickness and hot flashes.