- WEDNESDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) — Men and women suffering
from coronary heart disease seem to fare worse on measures of cognitive
function.

And the longer the person had had heart disease, the worse the
performance in such mental processes as reasoning, vocabulary and verbal
fluency, according to a study in the July 23 issue of the European
Heart Journal.

The research, however, had some limitations that may affect its
value.

“It's a very well-designed study with a very large number of
individuals, so they were able to appreciate small differences in
cognitive function,” said Dr. Kathryn J. Kotrla, chairwoman of psychiatry
and behavioral science for the Texas A&M Health Science Center College
of Medicine. “But they didn't control for some key variables such as
alcohol and tobacco, which are well-known to impact blood vessel disease.
Also depression, which is linked to both coronary heart disease and
cognitive functioning.”

“This makes the study tantalizing but incomplete,” Kotrla added.

Previous studies have given conflicting results regarding the
relationship between heart disease and cognitive function. Some have found
coronary heart disease (CHD) to be a risk factor, while others have
not.

According to the researchers, from University Hospital London and
INSERM in France, this is the first large study to look at the
association. And, previously, research had focused more on cerebrovascular
disease (which includes stroke) rather than just CHD, even though CHD is
responsible for most cardiovascular disease. That prior research had found
a strong relationship between cerebrovascular disease and cognitive
deficit and dementia.

The researchers looked at almost 6,000 British civil servants, aged 35
to 55 at the beginning of the project, taking part in a long-term
study.

Both men and women with a history of CHD turned up lower scores for
reasoning, vocabulary and overall cognitive function when compared with
people who did not have CHD. Women had added problems in verbal
fluency.

Men who experienced their first CHD more than a decade prior had even
lower scores for reasoning, vocabulary and semantic fluency (categorizing
words).

The risk of declining performance in the realm of reasoning went down
by about 30 percent for every five years after a diagnosis of CHD.

Women with a longer history of CHD showed a trend for lower scores in
semantic fluency, but the data here was based on a smaller number of
people.

The authors don't yet know what the biological mechanisms behind this
connection might be.

Also unclear from the study was how these changes in cognitive
performance affected actual day-to-day function and quality of life,
Kotrla said.

But the take-home message is still a familiar one: People should focus
on preventing CHD by not smoking and avoiding or controlling diabetes,
high cholesterol and high blood pressure. And the focus should start
early, before it's too late.

More information

Visit the American Heart Association for more on coronary heart
disease.