Despite being known as the “weaker sex” , a series of studies have shown that the biological protection of women against cardiovascular diseases is much better than that of men , since they have an extraordinary capacity to regenerate the heart muscle. The study has been published in the Journal Heart Lung Transplant .
The heart of women is different from that of men, although why is not very well known . To reach this certainty, a team of experts from the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital and the European University of Madrid, has analyzed the relationship between gender and survival of more than 40,000 patients with heart failure , based on the results provided by a thirty studies with more than three years of follow-up.
Analysis of the data revealed that men were 31% more likely to die from heart failure than women. “Women with heart failure live longer than men regardless of other factors. Why women are able to live longer than men is being investigated. In a way, what is thought is that the heart of women is more resistant, since, as seen in the MAGGIC study, the right side of the heart of women (right ventricle) responds better than that of men already that in women the failure occurs later ”, says Manuel Martínez Sellés, leader of the study.
Why this difference? Researchers believe that it is due to biological reasons : estrogens , which protect women from the onset of cardiovascular diseases until menopause, and pregnancy , where profound changes take place in the anatomy and physiology of the heart, since the A pregnant woman’s heart is repopulated with the child’s cells, which can last up to 25 years in the mother’s body.
“ The changes that occur during pregnancy are very similar to those experienced by athletes . Thus, pregnancy could be like a kind of training for women that prepares the heart to be able to resist situations of high myocardial stress ”, clarifies the expert.
