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We know men and women can experience different heart attack symptoms, and now, according to a study published in the BMJ, it seems the effects of heart-related risk factors like hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, and smoking also differ between the sexes.

An international team of researchers — including scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the University of Oxford in England — used the UK Biobank, a database of adult health information, for this study. The researchers found that:

• Women with high blood pressure have an 83 percent higher risk of heart attack than men with hypertension
• Women smokers have a 55 percent higher risk of heart attack than male smokers
• Women with type 2 diabetes are 47 percent more likely to have heart attacks than men with the condition

While heart disease is the leading cause of death of both men and women, these findings underscore the importance