Why Heart Health is Even More Important After Menopause
I've been thinking about my heart lately, and so should you.
Hello, hello! Thanks for being here.
I’ve been busy working on my book (more on that when/if there is something to announce!), and have sadly fallen behind on my intention to publish AfterthePause twice monthly (is this bi-montly? semi-monthly? That always confuses me…okay, I looked it up. SEMIMONTHLY is the way to go. BIMONTHLY MEANS “every two months.”)
Now that I’ve taught you something you might not have known let’s get to the heart of the matter.
Our HEARTS.
I’ve been thinking about hearts a lot lately, as a dear friend is currently in the hospital waiting for one to replace hers, which is unable to function properly due to a congenital condition. She is occupying a lot of empathy space in my heart right now and if she is reading this, which I know she probably is, please take a quiet moment to send her lots of mojo and support.
Some interesting heart facts:
❤️Our hearts beat about 100,000 times a day. That equals, in an average lifetime, a total of 2.6 billion times.
❤️Our hearts pump about 1.5 gallons of blood every minute. That equals about 2,000 gallons per day.
❤️A woman’s heart is sightly smaller than a man’s. The average male’s heart weighs two ounces more than the average female’s heart. Hearts weigh between seven and 15 ounces.
❤️Women’s hearts beat about eight times faster per minute on average than a man’s heart in order to maintain the same blood flow.
❤️The typical human heart valve is about the size of a half dollar.
❤️Your heart is located in the front of your chest and sits slightly behind and to the left of your breastbone. Thank your rib, which offer added protection. And, you can thank your lungs, too: to make room for your heart, your left lung is slightly smaller than your right.
❤️Your heart has its own electrical supply. That means even when it’s separated from your body, it continues to beat. Amazing, right??
Here’s what’s important to know about menopause and your heart: Although men develop heart disease earlier than women, by age 65, our risk becomes equal to that of men.
The biggest reason might be ESTROGEN. ❤️
Estrogen is heart-protective. It does many things like increasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol; decreasing LDL (“bad”) cholesterol; relaxing and dilating blood vessels, and soaking up free radicals that can damage arteries and other tissues.
So you can easily understand how, when estrogen drops with menopause, your risk of heart disease climbs.
The American Heart Association and other health organizations recommends against using hormone therapy (HT) for the sole purpose of managing heart disease. But, there are other ways to lower your risk for heart disease:
Don’t smoke. If you do smoke, please quit.
Maintain a healthy body weight.
Follow a heart-healthy diet, like a Mediterranean diet, which is low in saturated fats and high in fiber, legumes, whole grains, fruits, veggies, fish, and folate-rich foods.
Get your exercise. Do moderate-intensity exercise for 30—40 minutes, three to five days a week.
Make sure you treat and manage any other health conditions, like diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
We may not be able to control everything in life, but controlling our health, to a degree, is within our grasp.
“And I’m gettin’ old…”