More than half of all women over 50 will die from heart disease. In the past decade, more research has been done in order to find out why so many women in this age group are suffering from the disease and it appears that the menopause is one of the foremost indicators in causing heart disease.

Oestrogen, the female sex hormone, governs your cycle of ovulation and menstruation. However, it also seems to fulfil other purposes in your body. Oestrogen works to protect your heart during your childbearing years by controlling the amount of fat, called lipids, in your body. Lipids make up the cholesterol in your bloodstream and oestrogen helps to combat the build up of unhealthy cholesterol.

Cholesterol consists of two components: HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) and LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol). It seems that oestrogen helps to increase the amount of HDL in your bloodstream and reduce the amount of LDL in your body. This prevents the arteries from building up fatty deposits and allows your blood to flow more easily through your heart.

During and after the menopause, your ovaries reduce their production of oestrogen. As a result, the amount of LDL in your bloodstream increases, preventing the good cholesterol from doing its job.

Unfortunately, cholesterol and heart disease are intricately linked. High LDL can result in the thickening of the arteries and an increase in blood pressure. Reduced amounts of oestrogen can also increase the number of blood clots in your body. This too can clog your arteries, impairing your heart’s ability to pump. Therefore, your risk for heart disease and stroke increases slowly during and after menopause.

Preventing Heart Disease

The best treatment for heart disease is prevention. Early and continued prevention can help all women avoid heart disease and its consequences. Maintaining a healthy diet can help prevent your arteries from clogging, especially after the menopause.

Diets low in saturated fat and transfats and high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fibre are associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Also, a recent study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal confirmed that the consumption of fruits and vegetables, particularly green leafy vegetables and vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables, seems to have a protective effect against coronary heart disease.

You may even think about moving toward more vegetarian eating habits: A vegetarian diet reduces the risk of coronary artery disease, and may even reverse existing coronary artery disease when combined with other lifestyle changes. A Mediterranean diet that uses olive oil can reduce the risk of coronary artery disease.

Reducing the amount of alcohol you drink and avoiding cigarettes can also reduce your risks of high blood pressure and help in your heart disease prevention efforts. Moderate exercise for just 30 minutes, three times a week, can also greatly reduce your risk of heart disease. Exercise helps to strengthen your heart and purify your bloodstream, preventing heart attacks and stroke.

Poorly controlled stress may also increase the risk of heart disease. An attitude of hostility and cynicism has been powerfully linked with a higher incidence of cardiac events. Relaxation methods (meditation, breathing exercises), yoga, and stress management techniques are essential for preventing cardiovascular disease and coronary artery disease and for reducing the risk of recurrent cardiac problems.

Meditation improves exercise tolerance and decreases electrical changes associated with poor circulation to the heart. Meditation has also been shown to lower cholesterol and reverse carotid artery thickening. Also consider acupuncture, which has been shown to help relax the myocardium (heart muscle) and improve circulation.

A number of herbs and nutritional supplements may be useful in preventing and treating cardiovascular disease, including: Bilberry, Turmeric (curcumin) Fenugreek, Ginger, Garlic, Vitamin B12, Folic acid, Vitamin B6, L-Carnitine, Coenzyme Q10, Vitamin E, Magnesium, Niacin (vitamin B3) and fish oil.

Substituting soya nuts for other protein sources in a healthy diet appears to lower blood pressure in postmenopausal women, and also may reduce cholesterol levels in women with high blood pressure, according to a report in the May 28, 2007, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Women with high blood pressure have four times the risk of heart disease as women with normal blood pressure.

Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, Boston, assigned 60 healthy post-menopausal women to eat two diets for eight weeks each in random order. The first diet, the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet, consisted of 30 percent of calories from fat (with 7 percent or less from saturated fat), 15 percent from protein and 55 percent from carbohydrates; 1,200 milligrams of calcium per day; two meals of fatty fish (such as salmon or tuna) per week; and less than 200 milligrams of cholesterol per day. The other diet had the same calorie, fat and protein content, but the women were instructed to replace 25 grams of protein with one-half cup of unsalted soya nuts.

Blood pressure and blood samples for cholesterol testing were taken at the beginning and end of each eight-week period. At the beginning of the study, 12 women had high blood pressure (140/90 milligrams of mercury or higher) and 48 had normal blood pressure. Soya nut supplementation significantly reduced systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure in all 12 hypertensive women and in 40 of the 48 other women.

In women with high blood pressure, the soya diet also decreased levels of low-density lipoprotein (“bad”) cholesterol by an average of 11 percent. The researchers concluded that dietary soya may be a practical, safe and inexpensive modality to reduce blood pressure and could have important implications for reducing cardiovascular risk in postmenopausal women.

Although soya and the menopause have gone hand-in-hand in many Asian countries for thousands of years, in the United States and Europe there continues to be debate.

Typically, Asian women consume things such as tofu, miso, tempeh, soya sauce etc., taking in on average 200 milligrams daily. Research has shown that Asian woman tend to have fewer symptoms of the menopause and less severe symptoms and studies have been performed to determine if soya and menopause are indeed linked. What they have discovered is that the isoflavones in soya do have a hormone balancing effect. They can not only take the place of natural oestrogen and increase oestrogen levels when they are too low, but they can also reduce them when they are too high. This particular process is not fully understood but what is known is that regular consumption of soya can help ease or minimise menopause symptoms.

It is important to bear in mind that some of the studies performed indicate that the effect of the soya depends on the woman’s level of natural oestrogen while being consumed. For example, for a woman still having a normal menstrual cycle, the effects of soya showed little change. On the other hand, for women going through the change of life, it showed that the intake of soya increased the level of oestrogen. The result was fewer and less severe symptoms associated with menopause. With this, it appears soya and menopause is a good match.

In addition to the consumption of soya helping with hot flashes, it appears to have a protective effect on the heart. For instance, LDL, or bad cholesterol is also lowered. Again, the reason is not yet understood but somehow, soya helps by keeping the cholesterol within a range considered healthy. With this, a woman’s risk of stroke and heart attack is also reduced. However, there is more regarding soya and menopause. Other studies show that the isoflavones in soya keeps muscle cells strong, which reduces the woman’s risk of developing atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries and other research shows that soya may contain compounds that can inhibit breast and endometrial cancer (often due to excess oestrogen), fibroids, high blood pressure and osteoporosis.

With so many potential health benefits for women including soya in your diet is a sensible option for women, particularly if you are approaching menopause. If you’re going to include soya in your diet make sure you include good sources. There’s been some concern in recent years about aluminium levels in soya which have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. However, this is only when soya is eaten in excess.

Eaten in moderation – say four or five times a week – soya can reduce cholesterol levels, protect against heart disease and encourage hormonal balance in women going through menopause or peri-menopuase. The best way to eat soya is in its traditional form, avoid snack bars which may contain raw soya and avoid any soya products which contain soya isolate as these are not made from the whole soya beans. Also make sure you only buy soya products which are organic otherwise they could be genetically modified.