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Women who have hypertension or preeclampsia during pregnancy may be more likely to develop hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol later on according to a new study.
The emergence of these risk factors for heart disease soon after pregnancy can help explain why these women have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke later in life.
"Many researchers believe that pregnancy acts as a stress test [de la enfermedad cardiaca] and that it helps identify women prone to hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors" says Jennifer Stuart, a postdoctoral researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the TH Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University in Boston.
"Having this knowledge early in life gives you the opportunity to prevent and delay cardiovascular disease, it's never too late to improve your health behaviors, and many things that are recommended (like a healthy diet and physical activity) are probably beneficial for children and also for all those who live at home, "he said.
About 15 percent of women develop gestational hypertension or preeclampsia in at least one pregnancy, the researchers said. Preeclampsia in a complication of pregnancy that includes hypertension and additional problems, such as kidney and liver problems or fluids in the lungs, according to Preeclampsia Foundation.
The new study included nearly 60,000 women who had no heart disease or no known risk factors for heart disease at the start of the study. All women had given birth at least once between the ages of 18 and 45.
The health of these women was monitored on average 25 to 32 years after their first pregnancy.
Just under 3% of women had hypertension during their first pregnancy and 6.3% had preeclampsia during their first pregnancy, according to the study's authors.
The risk of chronic hypertension was two or three times higher in women who had suffered from hypertension or preeclampsia during pregnancy, compared with women who did not have a high blood pressure. did not have any. The risk of type 2 diabetes was 70 percent higher, while the risk of high cholesterol was 30 percent higher for these women, the study found.
The highest risk of developing chronic hypertension occurred in the 5 years following the first birth, according to the researchers.
"It is important that this information be received by health care providers," Stuart said. "They must be aware that this risk may be present very soon after pregnancy, and they must be alert to these risk factors."
He added that more research is needed to see which evaluation and prevention strategies will be most useful.
A New York-based cardiologist, Dr. Peter Mercurio, stated that he was not surprised to see increased risk factors for heart disease in women who had high blood pressure. or preeclampsia during pregnancy, ] but "the numbers are surprising, and they represent a great warning signal."
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