Begley, Sharon, Jill Goldstein, Marjorie Jenkins, Ana Langer, and British Robinson, “Heart and Brain Disease in Women: Sex and Gender Connections,” Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, February 28, 2018. Accessed April 3, 2018.

URL: theforum.sph.harvard.edu/events/heart-and-brain-disease-in-women/

Abstract

The evidence on sex differences in understanding, treating and preventing disease is mounting, and The National Institutes of Health has made Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV) key to all research it funds. Scientists are developing an unprecedented understanding, in particular, of the links between heart and brain disorders in both women and men. These insights are opening new frontiers in investigating the co-occurrence of heart disease and depression, and the risk for memory decline and Alzheimer’s disease — comorbidities that disproportionately impact women. Applying a sex-and-gender lens, this Forum explored the unfolding story of newly-discovered connections between heart and brain – and their potential to transform understanding of heart disease, Alzheimer’s and depression in women. Presented during American Heart Month and shortly before International Women’s Day, we asked why diseases of the heart and brain often go hand-in-hand, with women often at twice the risk of men – and how this new understanding can be translated into better treatments and prevention strategies for women across the globe.

This forum highlights the growing awareness of the significant differences between men and women in the way they manifest illnesses, and the need for research and medical treatment that is specific to one’s biological sex.