October 26, 2023
For researcher Dr. Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin, it’s personal.
Her interest in the issue of women’s heart health started with a promise she made to herself in a hospital bed. It has since become her life’s work.
A decade ago, Rabinovich-Nikitin developed pre-eclampsia, a dangerous condition characterized by high blood pressure, while pregnant with the eldest of her three daughters. Her physician hospitalized her for six weeks as a precaution.
“I was actually doing my PhD when I was pregnant,” remembered Rabinovich-Nikitin, who is Principal Investigator with the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences (ICS) at St. Boniface Hospital and holds the Evelyn Wyrzykowski Family Professorship in Cardiovascular Sciences.
“As a scientist, I was looking for scientific literature that could explain what I was going through with pre-eclampsia, and what I could expect for me and my baby.”
She did not find the answers she was seeking. “There was very little published at that time,” she said. “So, that was a goal that I set for myself: my research needs to cover this area.”
For women, the stakes could not be higher. Pre-eclampsia accounts for up to 10 per cent of pregnancies and is one of the leading causes of death for pregnant women and their fetuses worldwide.
“We still understand very little about pre-eclampsia and pregnancy-related diseases, their effects on the heart, and their effects on future generations,” said Rabinovich-Nikitin. “We need to decrease the risks to women, fetuses, and babies.”
Pre-eclampsia also causes the risk of heart disease in mothers to grow later in life. “We all have women in our lives who have been or will be exposed to heart disease at some point,” noted Rabinovich-Nikitin. “Together with obesity and high blood pressure, the risk for heart failure in women is greater than that of men.”
Studying the effects of sleep disruptions on heart health in women
Another area of interest in Rabinovich-Nikitin’s research is the effect of shift work and disrupted sleep on women’s heart health.
Disruptions to regular, restful sleep among women are generally higher than in men, she explained. This is because women are most often the primary caregivers of small children (think breastfeeding). Women also make up a significant percentage of shift workers in the world.
Sleep deprivation increases the risk for heart disease by 40 per cent in both sexes, said Rabinovich-Nikitin.
“We already know disrupted sleep adversely affects the heart, but we don’t know the specific effects it has in women in general, or on specific populations, such as pregnant women,” she said.
“Even in this area, although women contribute to shift work no less than men, still, all of the research we have on shift work and heart disease was done predominantly on men.”
Donor support building foundation of knowledge
The women’s heart health research initiative at St. B is breaking new and exciting ground.
“There is so much to find out,” she said. “Since we started the program about a year ago, we have already been able to make some significant findings. Every small contribution we make, we know, is significant because there is a lot left to explore.”
As part of the women’s heart health research initiative, Rabinovich-Nikitin and her team collaborate with physicians to translate their findings into clinical care. Doing so changes policies, promotes lifestyle choices and prevention, and leads to better treatments for women with heart disease.
“That’s very exciting, because you get to see the results of your work in action immediately,” she said.
“I am grateful for the support we are receiving from the Foundation donors. They are helping us to build the foundation of knowledge and continue our work. Research requires lots of resources, and without their help, it would not be do-able.”
Donor support allowed Rabinovich-Nikitin and the ICS, working with the RBC Youth BIOlab Jeunesse at the St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre, to develop a new women’s heart health program for high school students in Manitoba. She said the ICS will be introducing a similar course for graduate students who would like to study the field of women’s heart health.
Dr. Rabinovich-Nikitin will give a public lecture, entitled Heart Health in Women; It’s Time for a Checkup, on November 2, 2023, at 2:15 p.m. in the St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre. Her lecture will be live streamed and recorded for later viewing on YouTube (@StBonifaceResearch).
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