ABSTRACT
Animal models are helpful in clarifying the nature of relationships between risk factors and coronary heart disease (CHD) that are observed in epidemiological studies particularly when addressing risk factors, such as psychosocial stress, to which human subjects cannot be randomly assigned. In this chapter the results of a series of experiments addressing psychosocial, and reproductive effects on CHD risk in female monkeys are reviewed. The effects of experimental manipulation of psychosocial stress on reproductive function and CHD risk are presented. The most important concept to emerge from these studies is the possibility that women’s CHD risk later in life may be largely determined during the premenopausal years. This concept is presented as a life-span model of CHD risk for women.
