Menopause and your Heart

Nutrition is a new science and midlife womens health is an under studied area of medicine. This can make life confusing for any midlife woman.

Nutritional advice changes fast as research moves quickly or studies produce differing results in women as opposed to the initial studies carried out on animals or men. We are currently being flooded with research on womens health as medicine wakes up to the fact that women are not small men without penises but instead have a significant hormonal component to their health and are more greatly impacted negatively by stress - in a patriarchy…with misogyny and inequality…carrying the mental and emotional load…who would thunk it?!?

When I meet with new clients, one of their biggest hurdles in eating for vibrant health is an overwhelming amount of often conflicting information.

Cardiovascular disease in midlife women is one of those areas that is undergoing a significant download of research studies carried out on women, whilst at the same time, we are waking up to the power of healthy fats in the diet to support heart health, (even as food companies continue to lobby for low fat = heart healthy branding), the impact of stress on womens health and the fact that estrogen is a heart protective hormone. It is messy and the science based information is hard to find and navigate.

Let’s work through this matrix of information to find out what is best for our heart.

The number one cause of death in women is heart disease. This fact has been obscured for decades as the focus of medical research since the 70’s has been on mens heart health and the prevention of heart attacks in men. Since the mid-1980s, cardiovascular disease has killed more women than men each year. In 2011 alone, cardiovascular disease caused about 10,000 more deaths in women than men. Did you know this? Or are you still worried about your mans heart health?

We now know that estrogen is protective for our heart health and as estrogen declines and we shift into menopause, this is a risk factor for our heart health. To be clear, menopause does not cause cardiovascular disease but menopause is an additional risk factor for cardiovascular disease in women.

There is also the factor of timing when it comes to womens heart health and menopause. Multiple studies carried out over the last couple of years are equating hot flashes with an increase in cardiovascular risk, dependent on the age of the woman. If you are woman who experiences numerous hot flashes very early on in peri-menopause, in your forties, you are more at risk of a serious cardiac event in later life.

Timing is also important when we look at the fact that a woman in her forties who is in full menopause and has not experienced a period for a year has a the same risk of a cardiac event as a woman aged 55 who enters full menopause. It is not our age that is the risk factor but the decrease in estrogen.

This might require us to do some rethinking to change our mindset towards our periods. Periods are annoying, unpredictable and messy in peri-menopause but your period is a significant indicator of vitality, wellbeing and heart protective estrogen in the body. My heart breaks when I see women in online bemoaning and being done with their period in their forties, Your body is talking to you all of the time and your period is a positive affirming message of health.

Mamma Bears Breakfast

Midlife women are under tremendous pressure to maintain their youthfulness, thinness and sex appeal in our current society. This new research into womens heart health and hormones is telling us, our focus should lie not on our appearance but firmly on our wellbeing and cardiovascular health.

As we move through hormonal change, the greatest tools for ensuring cardiovascular health over the longer term are food and exercise.

When we get empowered around our food and exercise we are putting control over the outcomes for our health back into our own hands and on our plate.

Let’s look at the foods that help us to move the dial on our cardiovascular health.

Drink your water lady! Our cardiovascular system relies on the smooth running of blood around the system. HYDRATE!

Eat your fibre! Fibre is the midlife womans best friend. It helps to manage excess hormone, maintains the health of our microbiome…an important part of hormone regulation in peri-menopause and supports heart health. Fibre with each meal will help you to maintain your ideal weight and supports metabolic health. Our metabolic health…how we handle sugar, will either support your best cardiac health or tear it down. Eat vegetables, nuts seeds, fruits, berries, beans and lentils. You can also include some whole grains into your diet for fibre but the grain and dairy based diet that is the Standard American Diet is destroying our health, no matter how much we are subsidizing farms to produce these foods in distorted food policies.

Eat your healthy fats. If you are fat phobic because skinny is your ‘health’ goal, you are eating to undermine your heart health. Include olive oil, avocados, walnuts, flax oil, wild salmon, sardines, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sea bass, whole eggs, chia seeds, anchovies, coconut oil, avocado oil, hemp seeds, almond butter, olives, tahini, butter and mackerel. Supplementing with 1000mg of high quality omega 3 fatty acids each morning is also a wise choice.
Avoid sugar, trans fats and processed seed oils such as canola, corn, sunflower and soya oil that drive inflammation in the body. Avoid highly processed fat free foods that are full of fillers and chemicals designed to have the ‘mouth feel’ of fats.

Enjoy foods rich in vitamin E! Vitamin E changes the surface of our red blood cells to decrease the viscosity of our blood. Red blood cells become more slippery and blood flow is improved. Vitamin E can be found in avocados, sunflower seeds, almonds, hazelnut oil, almond oil, pine nuts, wild salmon and Rainbow trout, pistachios, kiwi fruit, Brazil nuts and peanuts. Interestingly supplementation with vitamin E capsules has been shown to reduce the incidence of hot flashes during peri-menopause. Taking 400iu of vitamin E containing mixed tocopherols (vitamin E is made up of different methylated phenols) will support your heart health and reduced hot flashes.

Eat a diet rich in the relaxation mineral magnesium. Magnesium relaxes our vasculature and musculature and supports a lower blood pressure. It is found in leafy greens, avocados, nuts and seeds, beans and lentils, wheat bran and dark chocolate or cacao. Magnesium is a co-factor in over 300 tiny biochemical reactions inside the body but it is estimated by the World Health Organization, less than 60% of the US population get sufficient magnesium in their diet. You know you are short on magnesium if you are constipated, have an annoying eye twitch or restless leg syndrome. Magnesium is fantastic for supporting heart health and aiding sleep. A supplement of 250mg of magnesium citrate, if you are constipated, or magnesium biglycinate, if you are not, taken at bedtime will support heart health and help you to sleep.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

It is challenging to learn that midlife hormonal change is a risk factor and can have a negative impact on our health.

I prefer to see this stage of life as a healthy wake up call to what is really important in life - our health, happiness and well-being. A fully informed menopause gives us all of the information we need to step into our power and begin to make changes to eat to improve our overall health so that natural hormonal change does not derail our next chapter.

You got this! one plate at a time.

If you want options for another seriously heart-healing, gluten-free breakfast try my Heart Healthy Buckwheat Bowl

Pumpkin Spiced Latte and Pumpkin Spiced Chia Pudding

I was today years old when I googled to find out how much sugar was in a Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Latte and came up with this answer from The Centre for Science in the Public Interest…

How much sugar is in a pumpkin spice latte?

All told, the grande PSL has 50 grams of sugar. Some of that sugar occurs naturally in the latte's milk. But we estimate that roughly 7½ teaspoons (32 grams) are added sugar, from the PSL's sweet pumpkin sauce and whipped cream. That's more than half the 50-gram Daily Value for added sugar.

The Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew isn't much better. A grande packs 250 calories and 31 grams of sugar—much of it added sugar. (There's not much milk...or protein.) Blame its sugary pumpkin cream cold foam plus vanilla syrup.

I was shocked! Why are we celebrating Pumpkin Spiced Latte season?!?!

Sugar and menopause do not mix and women who reduce their consumption of sugar at midlife find it easier to maintain their ideal weight, report reduced symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes, mood swings and foggy thinking and reduce their long term risk of diabetes, Alzheimers disease and cardiovascular disease.

Why is this?

As levels of the hormone estrogen fall in our bodies we are less able to handle sugar on a cellular level. Estrogen is involved in our insulin response (remember, everything in your beautiful body is interconnected) and we shift at midlife towards insulin resistance as estrogen naturally depletes. Insulin resistance is the measured precursor for diabetes.

The impact of sugar is a cyclical storm in midlife womens bodies.

Because excess sugar is felt by our bodies as a stressor and we respond with the production of cortisol, our stress hormone. Cortisol is a hormone stealer. Due to our survival mechanisms, the body will take the building blocks for hormones and build cortisol before it will build progesterone and estrogen and so stress depletes our juicy hormones faster and leaving us even more prone to insulin resistance.

Think muffin top, vaginal dryness and waking anxious at 3am each night.

Whilst this is not fun!!! It is a call to action to put on our big girl panties, create boundaries around foods that tear down our health and learn how to nourish ourselves responsibly.

I jumped into the kitchen to make my own Pumpkin Spice Latte and ended up with more nutrition for my gorgeous midlife body than I anticipated.

I broke open a can of pumpkin puree and was careful not to choose pumpkin pie mix which is packed with sugar. I know i am boosting my daily intake of vitamin A in the form of betacarotene when I make this Latte rather than buying a Latte with pumped in artificial flavour and flavoured, sweetened milk foam.
I picked out my spices with the knowledge that cinnamon is an awesome spice for supporting the body to manage blood sugar levels. It actually primes the receptors on cell walls to receive sugar so that it is not floating around the bloodstream dangerously.
I picked out a hazelnut milk, both for the Fall flavour and because its ingredient list is two items. Water and Hazelnuts. I am not adding gums, preservatives and other junk to my PSL.
Maple syrup is my sweetener of choice because it is rich in the B group of vitamins and chromium. Both of this nutrients are involved in the bodies healthy handling of sugar. I am supporting my body for the job I am asking it to undertake.
I broke my no caffeine rule and added a great locally roasted coffee.

You can find the recipe for this health building Latte below and notice, each Latte only needs 1 tbsp of pumpkin puree.

This left me with a problem as I opened a whole can of puree to make my Autumnal deliciousness!

I can’t stand food waste. One of my toxic traits is having to eat everything on my plate and my Mother grew up with rationing in the war. Now i am stressed and I KNOW that is not good for my juicy hormones!

I raided my refrigerator and decided to make Pumpkin Spiced Chia Pudding for breakfast and snacks.

Taking two more tablespoons of pumpkin puree out of the can, I refrigerated them in glass wear so i know i can make two more seasonal Lattes as the leaves turn in the next couple of weeks. This feels exciting!

I put the rest of the can in a large bowl and began to add nutrition.

Hemp seeds for protein, Chia seeds for fibre and magnesium, our relaxation mineral and the antidote to cortisol and ground flax, the queen of fibres for midlife women as it is packed with anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids (keep it in the refrigerator to prevent these delicate oils from going rancid) and lignins, a plant fibre that mimics estrogen in the body and drip feeds you a gentle, plant based version of your juicy hormone!

I added more of my spices and 2 tbsps of maple syrup, deciding that I was fully embracing the Pumpkin Spiced lifestyle this Fall and topped up with enough hazelnut milk to cover the seeds and fibre.

I have fully run the gamut of emotions with these two recipes.

I was shocked…ladies, if you want to dry out your skin and vagina, tank your libido and push yourself towards insulin resistance, the PSL is your drink of choice.

FOMO (Fear of missing out) and self-pity! Why can’t I have an Autumnal treat too?!?!? whah!

Empowered…where is my can opener because i am putting pumpkin in something today!
Guilt…Am I really going to waste this whole can of gorgeous orange nutrition on a Latte

And…Smug and Abundant…. Look at me now with my delicious, healthy breakfasts stacked up in my refrigerator for next week. I am winning at life!

Scroll down to the recipes, treat yourself and join me on this journey!

Pumpkin Spiced Latte Ingredients

1 tbsp Pumpkin Puree (not pie mix)

1 cup Hazelnut milk or other milk alternative

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch nutmeg

Good coffee to taste

1 tbsp Maple syrup
I would consider adding collagen powder for protein with the spices and stirring in coconut butter with the maple syrup to further boost the nutrition and flavour in this beverage.

Instructions

Make your coffee in the usual way
Heat 1 cup milk and pumpkin puree together in a large mug on the stove top or in a microwave
Add spices to the heated milk and whisk
Add coffee to taste
Sweeten with Maple syrup

Pumpkin Spiced Chia Pudding Ingredients

3/4 can of pumpkin puree
6 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp ground flax
2 tbsp hemp seeds
3 cups hazelnut milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp maple syrup

Instructions

Add the pumpkin puree, spices, seeds and ground flax to a large bowl.
stir in the milk so that all of the ingredients are evenly distributed
Add the maple syrup to sweeten
Store in portioned containers in the refrigerator to enjoy for breakfast and snacks.

Lemon Balm and Sage Lemonade

The conversation is real; in facebook groups for midlife women, in my one-on-one consulting calls with my clients and in online pleas for recommendations for cooling sheets, decent fans and sweat blocking procedures…it has been the summer of the HOT FLASH!

Peri-menopause in a climate crisis, as temperature reach new all time highs, is uncomfortable, sweaty and under boob rash inducing.

Hot nights make it hard to sleep. Heat waves result in day after day of top lip sweating and feeling like a gross hot mess as you shower for the third time in a day.

Hot flashes are one of the more uncomfortable and most widely recognized symptoms of peri-menopause and within this symptom there is A LOT to unpack.

New research into midlife womens health tells us that severe and frequent hot flashes, especially at an earlier age for menopause is a valuable predictor of a cardiac event later in life. This makes your hot flash a symptom of something far more serious than natural hormonal change and every woman should consider adjusting her diet to one that is more heart healthy at midlife. Think increased fibre, zero inflammatory trans fats and seed or vegetable oils and reduced sugar.

We know that hot flashes can be reduced when we reduce our intake of sugar caffeine and alcohol. All of these ‘foods’ spike our blood sugar level and evidence is mounting that the hot flashes are induced by the blood sugar crash that comes after the spike. There is also evidence that hot flashes are linked to insulin resistance, the precursor to diabetes. AGAIN, increased fibre and healthy fats coupled with protein with each meal will help us to balance our blood sugar levels.

When cortisol our stress hormone dominates our hormone profile we can feel an increase in both hot flashes and anxiety so reducing stress and remaining ‘chill’ is the antidote to these sweaty episodes.

There are also some foods that straight up reduce the incidence of hot flashes.

We have LOTS that we can work with to empower ourselves around our personal health and help ourselves out when it comes to uncomfortable hot flashes.

These steps of reducing sugar, reducing stress and eating more fibre and healthy fats, not only allow us to sail calmly with more comfort through hormonal change, but are also positively impacting our overall health reducing our incidence of diabetes and cardiac arrest.

Before over-riding the process our bodies in with HRT, these health-building diet and lifestyle changes are the steps our doctors should be recommending to us when we go in for an appointment.

What could be more delicious on a hot day than a cooling glass of chilled lemonade that supports our bodies in reducing this uncomfortable and embarrassing symptom.

Enter Lemon Balm and Sage Lemonade.

Lemon Balm is,a herb that has been used since medieval times to reduce anxiety and promote restful sleep. Like many herbs, it is a powerful medicine and can reduce cortisol levels in the blood stream. It is not for you however if you are taking hypothyroid medication or retroviral medication as it can interact in the body with this medicine. For this recipe i used dried Lemon Balm to make a tea but you can steep a handful of fresh lemon balm leaves if you grow a plant at home in your yard.

Sage is the herb you serve with your Thanks Giving turkey and can be found in most grocery stores or grown easily at home. Sage has been found to reduce the incidence of hot flashes by 50% in clinical trials carried out in midlife women. Read that again 50%.

Can you imagine if this was a drug??? We would all be recommended to take sage by our doctors and there would be publicity in womens magazines and on TV.

Because sage is just a herb you can grow at home in your yard for cents and because our medical providers are profit based, we do not get to hear about sage and its clinical trials or receive this information. We are extremely lucky to have clinical trials carried out at all on such a ubiquitous pantry staple but sage should be tucked into every womans shopping cart, to be steeped into a herbal tasting tea for the relief of one of the most ubiquitous symptoms of hormonal change.

For this recipe I steeped a flavourful tea made of dried lemon balm, fresh sage leaves and lemon rind before juicing the lemons and adding honey to make a delicious lemonade.

Ingredients

1 tbsp dried lemon balm

1 handful fresh sage leaves

1 litre/32 floz filtered water boiled

4 lemons

2 tbsp local raw honey

Instructions

Add the dried lemon balm, fresh sage and the peel from the lemons to a large jug or container.

Pour over the boiling water and leave the herbs and lemon to steep for 20 minutes to make a strong tea

Filter the herbs from the tea using a sieve or coffee filter

Add the juice of the four lemons and 2 tbsp of local raw honey stirring to combine

Chill the lemonade in the refrigerator and serve over ice adding sparkling water if it is to your taste.

Sip in the shade and feel the chill wash over your body