I’ve had your menopause palpitations on my mind this week. According to new research, menopause palpitations are more common than women think. [Carpenter, Sheng, et al, 2022].
As the authors noted, ‘compared with the abundance and breadth of research on menopausal vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes) and sleep, there is a relative scarcity of research on menopausal palpitations. However, up to 42% of perimenopausal women and 54% of post-menopausal women report having palpitations.’
Although 44%–87% of women aged 40–59 years living in America believed their palpitations required treatment, a systematic review found no Level 1 evidence for managing menopause palpitations. This and other evidence suggests palpitations in peri- and post-menopausal women are common yet relatively understudied in comparison to Vasomotor Symptoms (Hot Flushes).
As such, the authors contend that, like other symptoms, they may be normalized and/or trivialized, as they have mostly been attributed to psychosomatic (e.g. anxiety, stress) determinants, rather than cardiac causes. (Carpenter et al, 2022).
This is a shame, because when it comes to menopause-related palpitations, (yes, you need to get your Doctor to check them out), there is something that the Sports Medicine doctors might not be sharing with the menopause Doctors …. and that is, that when women are low in iron, or over-training with all the exercise they are doing, this can lead to palpitations too.
So too does low body fat, inadequate calorie intake (how much fasting are you doing?), lack of sleep and of course, the inevitable stress, anxiety and inflammation that is known to arrive during peri-menopause. Afterall, this life-stage is now known to be a period (excuse the pun) when women are most at risk for systemic (all around the body), inflammatory changes occurring. (McCarthy & Raval, 2020).
Menopausal palpitations are described as loud, racing, or skipped heart beats, flip-flops, fluttering, or pounding that occurs with or without dizziness and/or lightheadness. They are associated with demographic, clinical, symptom, and quality of life (QOL) factors states a report released in 2020 by the Journal of Women’s Health (Carpenter, Tisdale et al, 2020).
If this is you, then first and foremost, get to your Doctor for a check-up. Ask for Vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, potassium and of course, B12 and iron levels. All of these nutrients are important for your cardiac health as you move through menopause and I’ve written about this HERE.
The other thing to do is to practice slowing down your breathing – especially if you are someone who has a lot on your plate and your ‘to-do’ jobs are endless!
6-10 breaths per minute and diaphragmatic breathing is best. I describe how to do this below. I just wish that I knew to do this type of breathing when I was feeling anxious and overwhelmed at work and was experiencing palpitations. Yoga helps, so does meditation, but if you aren’t one for these activities, then perhaps you can consciously slow down your breathing with some swimming or just take a few minutes daily to do the breathing sequence below.
The Physiological Effects of Slow Breathing on your Anxiety and Cardiovascular System as you Age
To achieve these positive benefits, we need to slow down our rate of breathing to 6-10 breaths per minute, with an increased tidal volume (inspiratory and expiratory capacity) achieved by diaphragmatic activation.
Nasal breathing is also considered an important component of optimised respiration for health. [Russo, Santerelli & O’Rourke, 2017].
How Do the MyMT™ Programmes Work?
From a biological point of view our menopause transition means that the reproductive hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, are declining as part of our ageing. We all know that puberty is the period when oestrogen and progesterone first arrive, so in effect menopause is the opposite or the book-end to puberty.
As I mention in my online Masterclass on Menopause, your menopause symptoms are your body attempting to compensate for the changing balance between your hormones. Sometimes, those same hormones end up fighting each other instead of adjusting. But every one of your symptoms is reversible if you change your lifestyle and allow your body to adapt to its ‘new normal.’
This is what MyMT™ teaches you – all the scientifically evidenced step-by-step lifestyle strategies which help you to understand how to work with your changing hormones in menopause and post-menopause, not against them.
I have two main programmes – one focused on reducing the severity of menopause symptoms called Circuit Breaker and the other on stopping and then reducing uncontrolled menopause weight gain called Transform Me. When you have time, my video below explains how each programme works.
References:
Carpenter JS, Sheng Y, Pike C, Elomba CD, Alwine JS, Chen CX, Tisdale JE. (2022). Correlates of palpitations during menopause: A scoping review. Womens Health (Lond). 18:17455057221112267.
Carpenter, J. S., Tisdale, J. E., Chen, C. X., Kovacs, R., Larson, J. C., Guthrie, K. A., Ensrud, K. E., Newton, K. M., & LaCroix, A. Z. (2021). A Menopause Strategies-Finding Lasting Answers for Symptoms and Health (MsFLASH) Investigation of Self-Reported Menopausal Palpitation Distress. Journal of women’s health, 30(4), 533–538. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8586
Carmody JF, Crawford S, Salmoirago-Blotcher E, Leung K, Churchill L, Olendzki N. Mindfulness training for coping with hot flashes: results of a randomized trial. Menopause. 2011 Jun;18(6):611-20.
John JB, Chellaiyan DVG, Gupta S, Nithyanandham R. How Effective the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Quality of Life in Women With Menopause. J Midlife Health. 2022 Apr-Jun;13(2):169-174.
Ma, X., Yue, Z. Q., Gong, Z. Q., Zhang, H., Duan, N. Y., Shi, Y. T., Wei, G. X., & Li, Y. F. (2017). The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 874. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874
