Inflammation Emerges as a Hidden Danger for Women’s Heart Health

A new long-term study presented at the European Society of Cardiology reveals a critical yet often overlooked factor in heart disease risk for women: inflammation. Researchers tracked 12,530 initially healthy women—none of whom had traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or smoking—over the span of three decades. The findings were striking: those with elevated levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), an indicator of inflammation, faced up to a 77% higher lifetime risk of coronary heart disease, a 39% higher risk of stroke, and a 52% increased risk of any major cardiovascular event compared with peers with lower hs-CRP levels.

Although the study is observational and cannot definitively prove that inflammation causes these outcomes, the data align with established evidence that chronic, low-grade inflammation contributes to the buildup and destabilization of arterial plaque—processes that trigger heart attacks and strokes over time.

Experts emphasize the importance of early detection: identifying “inflamed” individuals—specifically women in their 40s with elevated hs-CRP—could enable preventive interventions long before disease manifests in later decades when interventions may be less effective. Moreover, analysis of earlier randomized trials suggests that statin therapy may reduce heart attack and stroke risk by approximately one-third in these inflammation-only cases even absent traditional risk factors.

These insights underscore a potentially pivotal shift in preventive cardiovascular care: beyond the classic focus on cholesterol and blood pressure, inflammation should also be considered a key biomarker—especially for women who appear “healthy” under conventional metrics.