(ANSA) – ROME, MARCH 16 – The female sex hormones estrogen have a negative impact on heart rate regulation and could increase the risk of arrhythmias, according to an experimental study conducted at the University of Linköping in Sweden and published in the journal Science Advances.
The study could at least partially explain why arrhythmias are more common in women.
Over a lifetime, the heart beats approximately 2.5 billion times. Each beat is triggered by an electrical impulse that causes the heart muscle to contract in a very well-coordinated movement. Diseases that cause an abnormal heart rhythm can, in some cases, be fatal. Long QT syndrome, for example, is one such disease. In patients with long QT syndrome, the heart takes longer than normal to finish each beat. This syndrome is often due to a hereditary problem, of a genetic nature.
“We are trying to understand which substances in the body affect the contractile function of the heart. If we could understand how this regulation works, perhaps we could understand why some individuals are more at risk of arrhythmias,” explains Sara Liin, who led the study .
The study starts from the fact that women are not only affected by arrhythmias more often than men, but also more severely.
In their study, the researchers investigated the impact of estrogen on heart rhythm, specifically the more active form of the sex hormone, estradiol. They saw that estrogen hinders some aspects of the heart’s contractile function. The other sex hormones showed no effect.
Experts have also demonstrated that some hereditary factors make the contractile function of the heart more or less sensitive to estrogen, thus suggesting that depending on one’s genetic background, hormones have a more or less influential influence on the risk of arrhythmias. (HANDLE).
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