Minor Cardiac Risk Factors

However, the most important step to curb the incidence of CAD in a postmenopausal woman is to bring down the cholesterol to the bare bottom levels (LDL 85 or below), and maintain it there. This step is even more important than estrogen replacement therapy.

Most of these minor cardiac risk factors serve as an adjunct for other major cardiac risk factors. An overweight postmenopausal woman who smokes has more or less the same risk as that of a male diabetic in developing coronary artery disease. With the onset of menopause women lose their estrogen-mediated cardiac protection and enters the same risk pool with men of comparable age. However, long-term estrogen replacement therapy could reduce the chance of CAD risk by as much as 50%, and an even greater reduction in subsequent CAD events in patients with established coronary artery disease.

However, the most important step to curb the incidence of CAD in postmenopausal women is to bring down the cholesterol to bare bottom levels (LDL 85 or below), and maintain it there. This step is even more important than estrogen replacement therapy.

There is quite an exponential increase in the incidence of CAD and sudden death in men from around the age of 45 onwards. No specific hormonal or other factors have been elucidated yet. Maybe the process of senescence manifests around that age group with its concomitant presentation of atherosclerosis.

A middle-aged business executive, obese, always sweating, talking in a high-pitched voice, yelling, who will never let you finish a sentence in a conversation, easily getting angered with a ruddy suffused-face, working 16-18 hours a day, is a classical example of a type A personality. These types of individuals seldom go to physicians for any which symptoms, self medicate with antacids and Advil, usually have a very high pulse rate, high blood pressure, and excessive levels of catecholamines (adrenaline and other related vasoconstrictive body hormones). This type of personality, particularly when associated with other cardiac risk factors, bears a very high risk for CAD and sudden death.

Sedentary habits just decondition the whole body, more so, the cardiovascular system. The travesty of sedentary habits is that it is associated with a high pulse rate, obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Eventually a good many of these patients will become diabetics too. Sedentary habit is an excellent catalyst for other cardiac risk factors to develop.

A resting pulse rate of 84 or more is considered to be an independent cardiac risk factor for coronary artery disease and sudden death. A high pulse rate to some extent reflects an incompetent vagal tone.