Heart Disease
As women, we often think heart disease is a man’s disease, but think again. Heart and blood vessel disease is the number one killer of Australian women as well as men and claims twice as many lives as cancer does.
Although it is true that before menopause, few women suffer from heart and blood vessel disease, after the age of 50 they certainly do, and at an increasing rate. In fact, more women under 60 die from heart and blood vessel disease than from breast cancer, and many more after that age.
The fact that heart disease tends to strike women later than men does not mean you should put off doing anything about it until middle age. Now is the time to start doing something about prevention
Causes of Heart Disease
Basically, heart disease is caused by clogging of the arteries (the blood vessels that carry blood away from your heart once it has taken up oxygen in your lungs) and this clogging process starts early in life. The main causes of this clogging are high cholesterol, cigarette smoking and high blood pressure.
The more of these risk factors you have (such as smoking or a diet high in saturated fats), the bigger your risk of developing heart disease will actually be. It is important to take action as early as possible, but it will make a difference at any age.
There are some major risk factors in developing heart disease:
- Family history (if a relative was under 65 years when heart disease developed)
- High blood pressure
- Elevated blood cholesterol
- Cigarette smoking
- Diabetes
- Excess body weight, especially when abdominal fat is increased
- Little or no regular exercise
How To Reduce Your Risk
Choose to be a non-smoker: There is no safe level of smoking. Smoking contributes to heart attack, stroke, cancers and many other health problems. It is a sad fact that one Australian woman in four puts herself at major health risk by smoking.
Eat foods lower in saturated fat: High blood cholesterol due to the amount of saturated fats in the diet is one of the main causes of the artery-clogging process causing heart disease.
Women are different to men when you consider that they have lower blood cholesterol levels than men for much of their lives, but the bad news is that in their sixties they catch up. Why is this? It’s partly due to the loss of hormone activity after menopause. Cholesterol is not the only blood fat which matters, (so beware of food packaging that states the product is ‘cholesterol free’ and therefore you might think you can eat as much as you like) and your doctor may suggest others such as triglyceride and HDL. The levels of these fats are particularly important for women in the post-menopausal bracket.
Being a healthy weight: Unfortunately, if you are overweight it increases the likelihood of having higher blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels. It also tends to make existing heart problems worse.
Keeping to a healthy weight doesn’t mean a life of dieting and deprivation. If you need to lose some weight, avoid ‘crash’ and ‘fad’ diets because these can be very unhealthy and do not contribute to long term weight loss. Instead, plan for gradual and permanent weight loss and lifestyle changes that you can live with and maintain.
Eat a wide variety of foods, and remember to include lean meat and low fat dairy products to keep up your levels of iron and calcium – these are very important for the post-menopausal woman. Try to stay as close to your normal body weight as you can by eating fats moderately and cutting back on saturated fats. It is also important to remember that older women should take care not to lose too much weight.
More about saturated fats
Saturated fats are the ones you need to avoid and these are found in meat, dairy and in some vegetable products such as palm oils and coconut oil, which are often used in commercially prepared foods such as cakes, biscuits, pastries and some takeaways.
Know your blood pressure
High blood pressure is especially common in Australian women after menopause. Over the age of 65, women become more likely to develop high blood pressure than men do. The disturbing part is that usually having a high blood pressure has no symptoms until it actually causes disease, so it is a very good idea to have your doctor check it once a year. Your doctor can advise you on high blood pressure and how to control it.
The importance of exercise
It can not be stressed enough how regular exericse or any physical activity is great for your health. Do something you enjoy every day, if you can. Walking, gardening, cycling or swimming are all suitable.
Source: The Menopause Made Simple Program, Anderson, D. & Graham, V. (2002)
Allen & Unwin, NSW.
Pages 25-28