âStressors that are relevant to the life-experiences of mid-life women (age 40 â 65 yrs) include job stress, caregiving, marital quality and discrimination. The articles we reviewed support the hypothesis that life stress and stressful events that occur in mid-life can impact womenâs later-life risk for Cardiovascular (CVD) events.â (Stewart, Kathawalla et al, 2018, p.13).
The emails find me from all corners of the world.
Most contain descriptions of women leading busy, stressful lives. Some describe caring for ageing parents or the loss of their parents. Others describe stressful life events, divorce, or worries and concerns about teenagers.Â
Many don’t fully understand the impact this stress is having on their sleep, anxiety, sore muscles, palpitations and other health concerns such as weight gain and high cholesterol. But I love how these
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The impact that the accumulation of stress (past and present) has on our heart and blood vessels as we age is what I mention in my Masterclass on Menopause. They are the âinvisibleâ symptoms that we canât see â higher cholesterol, changing blood pressure, increased heart rate and other changes to cardiac function that may appear in blood work but are dismissed as not being relevant to menopause. But they are.
General life stress, including perceived stress and life events, in mid-life was significantly related to later-life CVD risk and mid-life subclinical CVD in the majority of studies published in the past six years and this is why Iâm pleased that a relatively new study examining the relationship between stress and cardiovascular changes in mid-life women has emerged from the scientific research.
It confirms what many of us feel as we age â and that is, that our day-to-day stress (and stress exposure over our lifetime) impacts cardiovascular disease in mid-life women. Two-thirds of the hundreds of studies reviewed showed a positive relation between stress and sub-clinical cardiovascular health measures and that the connection between stress and cardiovascular changes occurs through multiple pathways, with the main ones being: Â
- Inflammation and thickening of the inside of the blood vessels â (intima-media thickness)
- Stiffness of the blood vessels leading to higher blood pressure (I often write about this condition, called âvascular stiffnessâ).
- Plaque development in arteries.
Women in mid-life experience unique stressors, including transitions within their family roles, informal caregiving, job stress, and perceived discrimination. Hence, of interest to all of us from this study was the connection between the types of stress and the cardiovascular changes. This is one of the first studies that has looked at this connection â thank you to the researchers because hereâs what we need to be aware of:
- General day to day stress was related to inflammation and thickening of the inside of blood vessels.
- An acute stressful event (such as the loss of a loved one) related to arterial stiffness and changes in blood pressure.
- Stress over the lifetime was related to plaque development in arteries leading to CVD in older age.
Menopause is a time of change â in more ways than just the physiological and biological. In our changing hormonal environment, there are also organ changes occurring and this includes to our blood vessels. Getting our stress under control is an important factor for managing our symptoms and Iâm often referring to how to do this in my private coaching community.
Perceptions of feeling stressed and over-whelmed influences so much of our daily behaviours, many of which we do unconsciously. From grabbing an extra cookie for the much-needed sugar-rush when we feel under the pump, to smoking, to drinking more alcohol to yelling at the kids, partner dog, or work colleagues â itâs a tough time getting through the day, without worrying about menopause symptoms. But herein lies the catch-22.
Many of our symptoms are related to the invisible changes that occur inside our blood vessels when we both feel stressed, or we are carrying stressful emotions into our mid-life years. If we donât do anything about managing or removing our stress, then this is the time of life when we become vulnerable to metabolic dysfunction (thyroid problems, weight gain or Type 2 diabetes) and blood pressure dysregulation.
How do we improve our resilience to cardiovascular changes caused by stress?
There is ample evidence in the literature that positive psychological states and social factors such as optimism, life engagement and psychological wellbeing may be protective against the development of cardiovascular disease, but in the day-to-day grind, itâs hard to stay optimistic and/or engage with life. But as Iâm always saying to women in the MyMTâą community â small changes turn into larger changes when they become routine habits, so making one small change in behaviour to build our resilience every day can have impact over the longer term.
Knowing how stress impacts our blood vessels is the starting point to changing our behaviour to reduce cardiovascular risk in mid-life. Here are the âheavy-hittersâ which help:
- Change your diet to an anti-inflammatory one and increase your intake of foods which help to dilate blood vessels. I talk about the role of nitrates in foods in all of my programmes.
- You must focus on turning around your sleep and your circadian rhythm. Finding ways to get natural light into your eyes in the morning is an important part of regulating our blood pressure. The MyMTâą âSleep All Nightâ module is the first module you receive in the MyMTâą programmes â itâs that important to our cardiovascular health, especially for those of you not sleeping now, whether or not you are in peri-menopause, menopause or post-menopause.Â
- Wholegrains are a necessary part of a heart-healthy diet. So, yes, find an organic, wheat-free bread if you can, or start having oats for breakfast, not bacon and eggs. Oats contain beta-glucans which help with your heart health and Iâve written about this HERE.
- Ditch the emphasis on high-intensity exercise and heavy weight training (until you sleep all night) and give your arteries the love they need, with aerobic exercise. This is a huge challenge for a generation of women who are addicted to their high-intensity exercise and resistance training however, the work of Professor Hirofumi Takana has been revolutionary in understanding the role that aerobic exercise has on our arterial function in mid-life.
As he mentions, âIn sedentary humans, arterial stiffness in the central (cardiothoracic) circulation increases with advancing age even in healthy men and women. Daily brisk walking for approximately 3 months improves carotid artery compliance in previously sedentary but healthy middle-aged and older men, as well as in apparently healthy, postmenopausal women to levels seen in age-matched endurance-trained adults.â (Tanaka, 2019, p. 237).
- Get some regular massage if you can â especially the type of massage that helps to release the myofascial sheath (the outer sheath surrounding the muscles). Understanding that over our life-time, our exposure to stressful events and chronic stress can increase inflammation in our fascia is an important aspect of helping you to manage stress and cardiovascular health.
Both our nervous system and muscles are changing as oestrogen declines, hence, our muscles become tighter and our fascia acquires inflammation (Castro-Sanchez et al, 2011). Seeking a trained professional who can help with a little myofascial love during menopause can be an influential part of your menopause symptom-management toolkit.
Sometimes we feel that we canât do anything about the circumstances in our life â and yes, for many women of our generation this is hard and I used to feel that way at times too. But when we understand the factors that matter to our health as we move through menopause, then we can make small changes that matter and take back some control of our day to day habits.
Itâs what I help women achieve on my 12 week programmes. Itâs a privilege to educate them on what they can do at a time of life whereby the stressors that build up daily, become a âperfect stormâ for changing cardiovascular health as we move through menopause.
When my own cardiac health changed as I moved through menopause, I was blind-sided as to why. I kept fit and ate well and tried to follow all the relevant lifestyle information. But I now reflect on how nobody was making the connection between our day-to-day stress levels, cardiac health and of course, our changing hormonal environment. It’s my privilege to connect-the-dots and do this for you. If you would like to learn a little bit about me and how I got to setting up MyMTâąÂ , then have a listen to the ‘Meet Wendy‘ video below.Â
Would you like help you with your symptoms using menopause lifestyle science?
When you are ready, I hope you can join me on either of the 12 week coaching programmes, which also includes my gut health and brand new heart health module too.Â
Alternatively, as a starting point, you can purchase my online Masterclass on Menopause. This is only NZ$15* (* approx. AUS$14 or UK£7.5). I hope you can join me in this powerful 2 hour webinar. The great news is that now you can watch it anytime, anywhere and even pause it whenever you like and go and make yourself a cuppa too.
Dr Wendy Sweet (PhD)/ Founder of MyMTâą/ Member: Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine. Â
References:
Castro-SĂĄnchez, A. M., MatarĂĄn-Peñarrocha, G. A., Granero-Molina, J., Aguilera-Manrique, G., Quesada-Rubio, J. M., & Moreno-Lorenzo, C. (2011). Benefits of massage-myofascial release therapy on pain, anxiety, quality of sleep, depression, and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2011, 561753.Â
Stewart, A.L., Kathawalla, UK., Wolfe, A.G. et al. (2018). Womenâs heart health at mid-life: what is the role of psychosocial stress?. Womens Midlife Health 4, 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40695-018-0041-2
Tanaka H. (2019). Antiaging Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Systemic Arteries. Hypertensio, AHA doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.13179.
