近日发表于高血压杂志的学术文献表明，降低血压可显著减少中年女性患心血管病的风险。该研究对来自欧洲、亚洲和南美洲的9357个，年龄平均为53岁的男女两性个体进行了为期11年多的随访研究，结果发现男女两性85％的心血管病之可逆性危险因素是收缩压升高、高胆固醇和吸烟，其中又以收缩压升高最为重要。收缩压升高15mmHg可以增加男女两性患心血管病的风险分别为32%和56%，降低收缩压15mmHg可以通过预防心血管病而改善男女两性的生活质量，特别是对女性的作用更大，其生活质量改善的幅度男性是20%，女性是40%。更多资讯请见下文：

　　MONDAY, Jan. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Many middle-aged women could significantly reduce their risk of heart disease by lowering their blood pressure, researchers say.

　　High systolic blood pressure (the pressure when the heart contracts) is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease and its common outcomes -- heart attack, heart failure and stroke -- in middle-aged and older women around the world, according to the report released Jan. 24 in the journal Hypertension.

　　In a blood pressure reading, systolic blood pressure is the first number recorded; in 120/80, for example, the systolic pressure is 120.

　　The researchers also found that the proportion of potentially preventable and reversible heart disease is almost 36 percent in women, compared with 24 percent in men.

　　In the study, an international team of researchers followed 9,357 women and men, average age 53, in Europe, Asia and South America for a period of more than 11 years. They found that three major risk factors account for 85 percent of reversible risk for heart disease in women and men: high systolic blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking. High systolic blood pressure was the most important risk factor.

　　"We found that a 15 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure increased the risk of cardiovascular disease by 56 percent in women, compared to 32 percent in men," Dr. Jan A. Staessen, director of the Studies Coordinating Center in the cardiovascular rehabilitation division at the University of Leuven in Belgium, said in an American Heart Association news release.

　　"It is recognized that women live longer than men, but that older women usually report lower quality of life than men. By lowering systolic pressure by 15 mm Hg in hypertensive women, there would be an increased benefit in quality of life by the prevention of cardiovascular disease in about 40 percent in women compared to 20 percent in men," he said.

　　As a result, women and their doctors should become more aggressive in their diagnosis and treatment of high systolic blood pressure, Staessen recommended.

　　SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, Jan. 24, 2011