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How often do you hear women discuss menopause as an exciting and empowering phase of life? If you’re more familiar with people’s dissatisfactions and discomforts during this period, it’s time to change that. Menopause is an opportunity to embrace your future self. Make Women’s Health Month this May less about the biological changes that accompany the menopausal stages and more about educating yourself on what these changes mean for your health, especially your heart, and what you can do to support your overall wellness.
Current data estimates that 60% of women in the U.S. will develop a heart-related condition by 2050, fueled by increases in high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. Many people don’t realize that this increased risk is also tied to women’s biological changes with age, including those that occur during menopause. By understanding the link between women’s heart health and this life stage, you can be empowered with simple, actionable lifestyle tips to focus on cardiovascular health for years to come.
Read More: Put Your Health First With Tips From Our Menopause Page
Menopause & Estrogen: What’s the Relationship?
You’ve likely heard of estrogen, but do you understand the role it plays in women’s health — especially during menopausal phases? Among its many roles in the body, estrogen acts as an antioxidant. It helps promote general wellness and cardiovascular health, but to understand its protective role, we have to dive deep: to the cellular level.
Free radicals are unstable molecules that steal electrons from other cells to balance themselves, while antioxidants are molecules that donate electrons to help neutralize free radicals. As an antioxidant, estrogen neutralizes free radicals and protects against “oxidative stress,” which can cause cellular damage and premature aging. Oxidative stress happens when there’s an imbalance in the body between free radicals and antioxidants. When there aren’t enough antioxidants to keep free radicals in check, oxidative stress occurs.
Over time, oxidative stress can impact organ function and the body’s overall wellness, including heart health. While oxidative stress is a normal part of aging, it can especially impact women during their 40s, 50s, and beyond. This is due, in part, to declines in estrogen during perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause.
Estrogen Dips During the Stages of Menopause
When a woman goes through the three stages of menopause, natural estrogen levels begin to decline. This is a normal biological process, but it comes with considerations that impact women’s heart health. Let’s break down the estrogen dips during the three phases:
- Perimenopause (typically mid-40s): estrogen starts fluctuating
- Menopause (around age 51): estrogen drops significantly
- Post-menopause: estrogen remains at consistently low levels
This drop in estrogen puts women’s heart health at the center stage. Recent studies show that menopause is accompanied by an increase in oxidative stress.1
Estrogen is a key player for women’s health, but there’s more to heart health for women during perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause. Below, we look at the specific cardiovascular changes that occur during this transition and offer lifestyle tips, so you can be prepared to make the right choices for your health.
The Cardiovascular Changes During Menopause
As a woman in your 40s and 50s and beyond, you have plenty of responsibilities juggling work, family, and community commitments. But rather than “pushing through” the phases of menopause and treating it as another item on your long to-do list, now is the time to slow down and understand the nuances behind these biological changes — and that includes taking a closer look at the role heart health plays in this life stage.
Cholesterol Fluctuations
During menopause, the decline in estrogen may trigger a shift in your cholesterol levels that can impact your heart health. Once your body stops producing as much estrogen, your lipid profile may change: LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides typically rise, while HDL (“good”) cholesterol decreases. LDL levels can increase by 15–25% around the time of menopause, meaning more cholesterol is circulating in your bloodstream with less being cleared away.2
HDL’s job is to carry cholesterol out of your arteries. As HDL decreases during and after menopause, arteries lose some of that standard maintenance. Plus, increases in triglyceride levels also contribute to cardiovascular health issues seen in post-menopausal women.
These changes might sound daunting, but there are proactive steps to take within your control. Cholesterol management and regular checks with your healthcare providers can help reduce your susceptibility to heart-related issues as a postmenopausal woman. Healthy lifestyle habits like a balanced diet (with low sodium and saturated fats and more soluble fiber) and regular exercise can help you maintain healthy cholesterol levels and cardiovascular function.
Read More: Explore Our Tips on Eating Well
Blood Vessel and Circulation Changes
Estrogen is critical for blood vessels and healthy circulation in the heart, too. It helps keep blood vessels flexible and responsive so they can expand and contract as your heart pumps blood. Estrogen also supports the smooth functioning of your arteries.
Blood vessels have receptors for estrogen. When estrogen binds these receptors, this triggers a signal response that leads to beneficial processes. One of these actions is the release of nitric oxide. This important chemical is the switch that helps vessels expand when there is an increased demand for blood flow.
Another important benefit to vessels is estrogen’s antioxidant effects. Estrogen helps to neutralize free radicals that can otherwise oxidize LDL cholesterol, which ultimately can lead to a decline in vessel health. When estrogen levels decline during menopause, so do its protective mechanisms.
Other Factors that Influence Cardiovascular Health
Changes in cholesterol levels and blood vessel function do not happen in isolation. The biological changes that occur during the menopausal phases of life can increase the body’s susceptibility to developing insulin resistance, causing weight gain. This is partly due to declining estrogen, which impacts how the body regulates glucose, stores fat, and builds muscle.
When it comes to heart health, blood sugar is equally important to understand. Estrogen plays a critical role in glucose metabolism by regulating the production and release of insulin, the hormone responsible for controlling blood glucose levels. Estrogen also helps the body use insulin effectively. When estrogen declines, that regulator support diminishes, which can make post-menopausal women more susceptible to insulin resistance and glucose intolerance — both of which can lead to concerns relating to weight management, insulin processing, and heart health.
Even sleep becomes part of the equation: poor sleep quality can disrupt metabolism and contribute to weight gain even when a woman maintains a balanced diet and sleep schedule.
Women’s heart health is complicated and may be a bit overwhelming to take in. But here’s our advice: use this information to reset your wellness journey with healthy habits around nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress.
Read More: See Our Guide to Cardiovascular Health
Protecting Your Heart: Evidence-Based Lifestyle Strategies
You’re probably asking: What can I do now that I understand the factors that impact women’s heart health during and after menopause? Below, we offer simple, everyday strategies that help you prioritize cardiovascular wellness from the inside.
Seek Out Heart-Healthy Fuel
A diet that balances plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats is key to promoting heart health and a healthy lifestyle. Limit saturated fats, trans fats, processed foods — particularly those that are high in sodium and added sugars. If you’re wondering where to start, download our free Mediterranean Cookbook with plenty of delicious, heart-healthy meals.
Move Your Body Often
No matter how you like to move, an active lifestyle is critical to a healthy heart and overall wellness routine. Aim for 150 minutes of moderate cardio weekly (about 20 minutes a day), strength training two or three times per week, and stretching to support flexibility and preserve muscle mass. In fact, since menopausal and postmenopausal women are susceptible to health conditions related to low muscle mass and muscular strength, regular strength training and stretching during this stage of life are critical.3
Prioritize a Healthy Weight
Managing your weight is important for healthy blood pressure, healthy cholesterol levels, and cardiovascular function, but that doesn’t mean leaning into diet culture or extreme eating habits. Working with a dietitian or a nutritionist can help you work balanced eating into your everyday life to support a healthy weight.
Keep Your Stress Under Control
Whether you’re a mom, a working professional, an athlete, a caregiver, or all of the above, we all experience overwhelm. Yet, stress can take a toll on your health (including your heart) if left unchecked. Prolonged stress can negatively impact cardiovascular function and emotional health, so find what works best for you to manage stress. Start with meditation, yoga, deep breathing, or time in nature and see what works best for you.
Get Your Zzzs
Quality sleep does a lot more than help you feel rested and energized each day. It also plays a role in your heart health and overall well-being, helping regulate hormones and supporting physical and mental recovery. We have tips for getting seven to nine hours of sleep each night, so you can tackle each day with confidence.
No one is perfect, so aim for consistency when resetting your routine. These small lifestyle changes become increasingly important for your overall health and quality of life during menopause and beyond. Also, smart supplementation can be a key component of a well-rounded, healthy lifestyle, helping you build on a powerful wellness foundation for your cells.
Read More: See Our 40s Game Plan for a Healthier You
How Kaneka Ubiquinol® Supports Cardiovascular Health During Menopause
Your heart works hard every day, and it demands a significant amount of cellular energy compared to other organs. The heart contains a very large number of mitochondria to fill the high energy demand of heart cells.4 This means that while smart lifestyle choices are essential to support your heart and overall health, an antioxidant like Kaneka Ubiquinol®, which plays a key role in promoting mitochondrial function, cellular energy production, and heart health from within.
As the active antioxidant form of CoQ10, ubiquinol is a naturally occurring nutrient that protects cells, tissues, and organs from oxidative stress and supports heart health. Ubiquinol levels naturally decline with age, making a daily Kaneka Ubiquinol® supplement important for cellular wellness and general health. Kaneka Ubiquinol® is bioidentical to the ubiquinol in the body and promotes heart health in a number of ways, including how it promotes arterial and vascular health and healthy circulatory function.5
Kaneka Ubiquinol® can be especially helpful for menopausal and post-menopausal women who are more susceptible to oxidative stress, as it neutralizes free radicals and promotes mitochondrial function and cellular energy production. It can also help women manage common symptoms of menopause: In a consumer use study, 80% of post-menopausal women taking 200 mg of Kaneka Ubiquinol® per day felt less irritability, sensitivity, stress, and fewer mood swings after 60 days of supplementation.6
Partner with Your Healthcare Provider
All this information might feel overwhelming, but that makes you an active participant in your own health. However, you do not have to navigate cardiovascular wellness alone: talking to your trusted healthcare professionals is essential so you can get answers to your questions and advice on building an individualized routine that is best for you.
At your next doctor’s appointment, you might ask questions like: What screenings and tests should I have, and how often? or Based on my family history, what should I be particularly aware of? You may want to visit a cardiologist for specialized medical care and guidance as to the tests and screenings that are recommended for you. Then, you can track your metrics over time.
Too often, women can feel silenced or intimidated during medical conversations. With the right knowledge about women’s heart health, particularly as you age, you can feel confident in speaking up to safeguard your future, during and after menopause.
Read More: Women’s Heart Health Metrics to Track
Your Heart Health Is in Your Hands
The stages of menopause can mark a turning point for women’s cardiovascular health, but now it’s up to you to commit to your future self. Celebrate Women’s Health Month by taking hold of your wellness by scheduling your next doctor’s appointment, resetting your routine, and learning more about Kaneka Ubiquinol®. There’s no better time to build the heart-healthy life you want to live.
