Before menopause, women suffer only about half as many heart attacks as men of similar age do. But after menopause the statistics even out. Many medical researchers suspect that because estrogen production drops sharply after menopause, the hormone might somehow help ward off heart disease. But a recent study suggests that in addition to estrogen, the monthly loss of blood may protect women from heart disease, and that men might benefit by regularly donating blood.
David Meyers, a cardiologist at Kansas University Medical Center, became interested in a possible link between blood loss and heart disease after reading about a Finnish study that found that men with high levels of iron in their blood had more than twice the risk of heart attacks than men with lower levels. He wondered whether the regular loss of blood, by depleting the body’s iron reserves, might reduce that risk.
To find out, Meyers ...
