Eating a heart-healthy diet and staying active are two ways to promote heart health at all stages of life. “Lifestyle and behavioral interventions are critical to maintaining cardiovascular health and reducing heart disease,” Matthew A. Allison, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, said in a news release. “However, we do not have adequate randomized clinical trials testing these interventions specifically during the menopause transition.”
Since the association between CVD and menopause is so strong, the researchers suggest hormone replacement therapies (HRT) as a potentially beneficial tool. These may help maintain and manage the production of estrogen, even when the ovaries are removed or no longer naturally producing these sex hormones. That said, not all medical experts agree on this type of therapy, and further research proving the benefits of HRT and other interventions is necessary.
“This at-risk population has not been the focus of previous clinical trials,” Allison says, “thus leaving us with questions about how the results from these studies might apply to women during this earlier phase of menopause.”
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