According to a new study, 10 percent of heart disease cases that show up in middle age could be prevented simply by correcting an iron deficiency. The findings of the study were published in ESC Heart Failure, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
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The study included 12,164 individuals from three European population-based cohorts. The average age of the group was 59, while nearly 55% of the population consisted of women. During the study, cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities such as smoking, obesity, diabetes and cholesterol were checked via clinical assessment, including blood samples.
The study showed that iron deficiency was highly prevalent in the middle-aged population. The follow-up period was for a median of 13.3 years. During the time, 2,212 (18.2%) deaths were encountered that comprised 573 deaths (4.7%) from a cardiovascular cause. The incidence of coronary heart disease and stroke was identified in 1,033 (8.5%) and 766 (6.3%) participants, respectively.
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