New research suggests that women with high blood pressure are at higher risk than their male counterparts of vascular disease, prompting researchers to recommend different treatments in women.
The study, published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Cardiovascular Disease, was conducted by scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina.
About 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure, putting them at risk for two leading causes of death - heart disease and stroke.
But in this latest study, researchers found "significant differences" in the mechanisms that cause high blood pressure in women, compared with men.
With the same level of high blood pressure, women had 30% to 40% more vascular disease, the researchers found.
"This is the first study to consider sex as an element in the selection of antihypertensive agents or base the choice of a specific drug on the various factors accounting for the elevation in blood pressure," said Dr. Carlos Ferrario, lead author and professor of surgery at Wake Forest Baptist.
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