7 Ways to Protect Your Heart at Menopause

Women's risk for heart disease begins to rise after menopause, so it's a good time to evaluate your health and make small changes to prevent heart disease.

By Avery Hurt

For years, experts blamed the statistical climb of heart disease in older women on the reduction of estrogen during menopause. Estrogen naturally raises HDL (good) cholesterol and lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol, providing women with cardiovascular protection during childbearing years.

Recent studies, however, have questioned just how directly menopause affects heart health. Doctors now say menopause alone doesn't make heart disease inevitable.

"The increased risk is due to an increase in the constellation of risk factors that occurs at menopause," says Teresa Caulin-Glaser, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at McConnell Heart Health Center in Columbus, Ohio, and coauthor of The Woman's Heart: An Owner's Guide (Prometheus, 2008). The effects of high cholesterol, high triglycerides, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle accelerate in middle age. Lower estrogen is but one player in that cast of risk factors.

You can't avoid menopause, so use it as time to pause, evaluate your health, and follow the next seven vital tips to protect your heart.