It’s not good suffer from depression when you are a woman over 40 years old. This is according to a new Australian study led by Dr Jackson, an epidemiologist from the University of Queensland. Indeed, according to this study conducted over 12 years among women aged 47 to 52, it seems to be an age group where women are most vulnerable. more sensitive to the risk of cardiovascular disease when they suffer from anxiety or depression.
“We followed more than 10,500 women between 1998 and 2010. We concluded that women who suffer from depression between the ages of 40 and 50 are 2.4 times more likely to have a heart attack,” explains Dr. Jackson. Figures that she compares to those of a recent American study of a group of women over the age of 60, who had 3 times the risk. of heart attacks when they were on antidepressants. “The discovery of this cardiovascular risk in women between 10 and 15 years younger than those in the American study surprised us, adds the Australian doctor. It’s younger than we imagined.
This study reminds us that, contrary to popular belief, breast cancer is not the leading cause of death among women. And that it is indeed the heart attack, which was thought to be reserved for men, which causes more than one out of two premature deaths in women. Until now, women were thought to be sufficiently protected by their female hormones (oestrogens). But a change in female behavior came to shake things up: women smoke more and more , and often in combination with a contraceptive pill. And now we learn that anti-depressants also increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease… What if you started exercising again? to maintain your heart ?
