Having a lot of children can put a strain on your heart health. Being pregnant four times would double the risk of heart disease, according to researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Four pregnancies is the point at which the arteries are at risk of hardening and dangerously thickening, which can block blood flow and lead to a heart attack.
The study was conducted among 1,644 women with an average age of 45 years. The coronary artery calcium score was calculated. It is used to assess the amount of calcified plaque deposit in the coronary arteries. The higher the score, the greater the risk of suffering a heart attack. For greater precision, the thickness of the aortic wall was also measured in the female patients. The aim was to determine to what extent narrowing and hardening of the arteries can impact heart risk.
The number of pregnancies, a cardiac risk to be taken into account
Verdict, women who gave birth to four or more children saw their heart risk doubled compared to women who had two or three children. These results were obtained after removing other cardiovascular risk factors such as family history, smoking, diabetes, cholesterol, alcohol, sedentary lifestyle.
For Dr. Monika Sanghavi, author of the study, these findings “provide evidence that changes associated with pregnancy can increase cardiovascular risk.”
As such, they deserve more attention from physicians. Ultimately, this study could make it possible to identify women at cardiac risk, even though they do not present any risk factors elsewhere.
Do you think that the cardiac risk during pregnancy is sufficiently taken into account? Have your say on the forum.
