A study of more than 65,000 women aged 50 to 79 concludes that women who live in areas with high levels of air pollution run a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

The women lived in 36 cities across the US and were followed for 9 years to see who would have a heart attack or stroke, require coronary bypass surgery or die from cardiovascular causes. Those living in the areas with the highest pollution were much more likely to have cardiovascular disease of some type.

The researchers link the amount of fine dust and soot particles in the air to the risk of heart disease. They are not sure of the mechanism but theorize that breathing in these particles, which can carry pollutant gases into the lungs, may cause hardening of the arteries, a precursor of heart disease.

The University of Washington study is published in the Feb 1 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Women In Polluted Areas At Higher Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease

Did you know that women suffer from insomnia twice as often as men? The incidence of insomnia can increase with life stressors but also increases during premenopausal years as women are often awakened by night sweats and hot flushes.

Insomnia isn’t just troubling to the sufferer at night. The inability to sleep or poor and interrupted sleep that leaves the sufferer unrefreshed can cause fatigue, drowsiness and difficulty in concentrating during the day.

Insomnia has plagued members of the human race since time immemorial and anecdotal remedies abound. We all know the one about counting sheep, but did you know that a sliced onion in a jar near your bed is supposed to induce sleep? A glass of warm milk is probably the best known “food cure” for insomnia. But be careful with food cures as superstitions blame consumption of some foods for generating nightmares.

The American Insomnia Association states that one third of all Americans suffer from occasional insomnia and one in ten suffers from chronic insomnia. Treatment options include medications as well as behavioral adjustments and relaxation therapies.

More resources for those with sleep disorders:

American Sleep Association

National Sleep Foundation

Psychology Today – A Diet for Insomniacs

People who learn and perform skin self-examination with a partner are more likely to regularly engage in this cancer-screening activity according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Dermatology.

Skin self-examination can help detect skin cancer early and lead to decreased death rates from melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.

A study conducted by June K. Robinson at Northwester University found that particpants who learned self-exam techniques with a partner were more likely to perform follow up exams and over the long term.

Performing skin exams with a partner also provides the ability to examine parts of the body a patient may not be able to adequately view alone.

So, grab your partner and learn the ABCDE’s of melanoma.

It’s long been known that anger and hostility are risk factors for heart disease in men, but few of the studies on these risk factors have included women.

Researchers who conducted a women-only study into the effects of anger and hostility on women’s heart health state that women who exhibit outward expressions of anger may be at increased risk for coronary disease if they also have other risk factors such as age, history of diabetes and a history of unhealthy lipid (fat) levels in the blood.

“Our results appear to differ from the literature on males, particularly young males, in which hostility scores are found to be associated with coronary artery disease. However, the new data, combined with our previous findings, indicate that anger and hostility in women, as in men, do tend to cluster with adverse risk factors,” said Bairey Merz, one of the authors of an article in December, 2006, issue of the Journal of Women’s Health.

The anger and hostility research grew out of the Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) Study, a multi-center, long-term investigation sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Bairey Merz chairs the WISE study and holds the Women’s Guild Chair in Women’s Health at Cedars-Sinai.

Citation: Journal of Women’s Health, Published Online Dec. 2006, “Anger, Hostility, and Cardiac Symptoms in Women with Suspected Coronary Artery Disease: The Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) Study”

Outwardly expressed anger affects some women’s heart arteries