The Heart of a Woman: How Cardiovascular Health Changes As You Do

A woman’s heart adapts to support her through every stage of life, from puberty to pregnancy, perimenopause, and beyond. It takes on the stress of every health challenge, life pressures, anxiety, joy, heartbreak, and every time she has put her foot forward to reinvent herself. A woman’s heart is incredibly resilient, at least until midlife hormonal shifts begin to happen – then things begin to change. 

During perimenopause, and throughout the entire menopause transition and beyond, the heart begins to respond to shifting hormones, often in the form of inflammation and stress. 

This doesn’t mean a woman is sentenced to cardiovascular disease in midlife. These changes are predictable, which means we can prepare for them in advance and work to protect heart health well into the future. 

This begins with understanding how hormonal, inflammatory, and vascular challenges affect cardiovascular health, and then taking steps to support heart health gently and naturally. This includes sea buckthorn and its rare omega-7 fatty acid content. Sea buckthorn is more than a trendy buzzword. It’s one of the most effective supplements women can take to protect their cardiovascular health. 

The cardiovascular changes that a woman experiences, starting with perimenopause and then the post-menopause stage of life, begin with one important hormone. 

Estrogen. 

Estrogen is one of the most powerful protectors of female cardiovascular health. In the past, estrogen got a bit of a bad reputation, but time and science have shown us that estrogen actually offers many benefits for women’s health, with cardiovascular wellness being one of the most important.

Heart disease in postmenopausal women is a serious concern. According to statistics from the American Heart Association, published by the CDC, about one in four postmenopausal women has some form of heart disease. 

Women in general experience a sharp increase in cardiovascular risk about a decade later than men. This is due to the protective benefits estrogen offers from puberty through perimenopause, which the effects of generally wear away by her sixth decade of life. 

Before menopause, estrogen helps to keep arteries soft and flexible, it plays a role in healthy cholesterol levels, and it helps to reduce cardiovascular-related inflammation.  

As estrogen levels begin to decline in perimenopause, the cardiovascular changes a woman begins to experience include: 

• Arteries that become more rigid, less elastic
• Blood pressure increases 
• LDL cholesterol rises, while HDL cholesterol drops 
• Cardiovascular inflammation becomes a concern
• Stress recovery slows down

This is why a woman’s risk of heart disease increases sharply after menopause. It’s not because she’s doing anything wrong or not trying to protect her heart health. The hormones that once played a key role in protecting her cardiovascular health are shifting in the wrong direction. 

When it comes to protecting heart health, many people turn toward the strategies that we’ve all been taught, like controlling cholesterol and blood pressure, mostly through diet and stress reduction. These are important, but for women in midlife, cardiovascular health is more nuanced. 

Once estrogen declines, women are more likely to experience cardiovascular issues, including:

• Microvascular dysfunction
• Cholesterol that is normal, but with elevated CRP ( C-reactive protein), which increases cardiovascular risks 
• Cardiovascular changes related to increased inflammation 

Women also experience different symptoms of heart disease than men. It’s important to say that if you are experiencing new, persistent, or worsening symptoms, it’s crucial to consult with a healthcare professional. If you’re experiencing more than one of these symptoms, and they are present with no other known cause, please seek medical attention immediately. 

• Unusual Exhaustion & Fatigue: This goes beyond just feeling a bit tired or worn out. This is the type of fatigue that feels bone deep, leaving you feeling completely wiped out after simple tasks. It can also present as needing more rest than usual or a sudden decrease in stamina. 
  
  
• Shortness of Breath, Even Without Chest Pain: Suddenly feeling winded walking up stairs, feeling like you can’t take a full breath, or needing to pause during activities you can normally tolerate are all red flags. 
  
  
• Upper Back, Shoulder, & Neck Discomfort: While chest pain is a classic symptom of cardiovascular issues, women may experience discomfort in other areas of their body. This can present as a dull ache between the shoulders, tightness in the upper back, pain or discomfort that radiates upward, and pressure in the neck or jaw. 
  
  
• Nausea, Indigestion, & Digestive Pressure: Women may experience digestive symptoms related to cardiovascular disease. This may include nausea, vomiting, heartburn-like symptoms, and unusual abdominal discomfort. These symptoms are often dismissed as typical digestive upset, making them easy to dismiss. 
  
  
• Anxiety or a Sudden Sense of Dread: One unusual symptom of a cardiovascular event that women experience is a sudden onset of anxiety or impending doom, like something bad is about to happen. This symptom isn’t related to any type of mental health concern, but is instead thought to be the body’s natural response to changes in blood flow. 
  
  
• Lightheadedness or Feeling Faint: Suddenly feeling dizzy, weak, unsteady, or like the world around is fading or dimming can be a sign of a cardiac event. 
  
  
• Pain in the Jaw, Teeth, or Ear: This includes tightness that radiates throughout the jaw, unexplained toothache-like pain, and unusual ear pressure. There are actually shared nerve pathways between the heart and these areas of the head, which is why these symptoms are common in serious cardiac events in women, such as a heart attack. 

Some of these symptoms present themselves at the exact time of a severe cardiac event, while others may show up as warning signs when cardiovascular disease is present. 

Women experience these different symptoms due to their unique inflammatory pathways and how their bodies respond to hormonal transitions and stress-related processes. It’s important for women to know that the symptoms of heart disease and heart attack are different than what is seen in men, especially since the symptoms experienced by men are the baseline for what most people are taught. 

Many women begin to notice changes in their body composition during the perimenopausal and menopause transition. For example, weight gain around the abdomen is a common change that many women find themselves frustrated or distressed about. 

Again, it’s estrogen to blame, mostly. 

Of course, lifestyle, dietary habits, and physical activity do still matter when it comes to maintaining or losing weight during midlife, but estrogen changes how all of this works. 

First, the drop in estrogen causes weight gain to shift to the abdomen. Aside from your clothes not fitting like they once did, abdominal fat is associated with an increase in visceral fat, which is a fat that accumulates deeper in the body, wrapping itself around internal organs. Visceral fat is biologically active, and it amps up inflammation, which can directly affect the heart and blood vessels. 

As visceral fat accumulates around the abdomen, women also experience an increase in insulin resistance, cortisol that has gone off the rails, and fluctuations in thyroid functions. Add this to impaired sleep, and you have the perfect storm for increased inflammation and excess stress on the cardiovascular system. 

Women at this stage often feel that they’re doing everything they can, taking all the healthy measures they always have, and maybe even increasing their efforts. The problem isn’t a lack of trying; it’s that the body is responding differently than it has in the past. 

By the time a woman has reached her 40s and 50s, she is no stranger to the effects of hormonal shifts. In fact, she has lived through a lifetime of them. Her heart has carried her through all of them, but as hormones begin to shift yet again, the cardiovascular system begins to speak a new, unfamiliar language. 

For many women, it begins with subtle changes. Maybe there’s a bit more inflammation, or a little less resilience to life’s stressors or attacks on the immune system. These are signs that there is increased pressure, stress, and inflammation happening throughout the entire body. Maybe those first signs aren’t quite enough to sound the alarm, but they are enough to take notice that the midlife heart needs something different than it did 20 or 30 years ago. 

This is where we can turn to Mother Nature for nourishment. Sea buckthorn is a botanical supplement that is so beautifully aligned with the feminine body. With its rich antioxidant content and rare omega-7 fatty acid, sea buckthorn has supported women for centuries. 

But it isn’t just centuries of anecdotal evidence of the benefits of sea buckthorn that we’re looking at. There are growing mountains of modern research that now recognize sea buckthorn as one of the most powerful allies for inflammation, metabolic balance, and vascular health. 

Unlike other supplements said to support heart health, there’s something special about omega-7 that directly affects the endothelial lining of blood vessels, inflammatory pathways, and metabolic changes that affect how a woman’s body uses and stores fat in mid-life. 

Sea buckthorn, especially when combined with other heart-friendly nutrients, like vitamin D and DHA, works beautifully to support cardiovascular health in women. It isn’t about fixing a woman’s body, but supporting it naturally and gently through menopause hormone transitions by nourishing it with the nutrients it needs. 

Sea buckthorn is one of the richest natural sources of omega-7 fatty acids in the entire world. Omega-7 is rare, and it is also highly beneficial in reducing inflammation, supporting metabolic health, and working hard to protect blood vessel health and function. 

For women’s heart health, omega-7 has been shown to:

• Improve insulin sensitivity 
• Reduce inflammation
• Support endothelial repair in blood vessels 
• Improve arterial elasticity 
• Support cholesterol balance
• Reduce serum C-reactive protein concentrations, resulting in less vascular inflammation and lower long-term cardiovascular risk

Sea buckthorn has built a well-deserved reputation, with many thanks to the rich omega-7 content. But sea buckthorn is so much more than just an omega-7 supplement. It’s a berry with a nutrient profile that seems like it was designed specifically for women’s health and cardiovascular needs. 

While omega-7 gets a lot of the press, the rest of the nutrients work quietly in the background, supporting heart health in several ways. 

The sea buckthorn berry is incredibly abundant in antioxidants that work to protect blood vessels and the heart. Antioxidants are key for fighting oxidative stress, which can be caused by aging, stress, environmental toxins, poor sleep patterns, and midlife hormonal shifts. In fact, hormonal shifts are one of the most significant drivers of arterial stiffness seen in menopausal women. 

Flavonoids are plant compounds that also act as antioxidants, but they have additional purposes in supporting heart health. Flavonoids, which are found in most vibrantly colored plant-based foods, have strong anti-inflammatory effects and have been shown to reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure, and help to reduce a woman’s overall risk of heart disease. 

Sea buckthorn offers more than 190 bioactive compounds to support a woman’s health. Among these are plant sterols, or phytosterols. Plant sterols are natural compounds that actually resemble cholesterol, but in a good way. 

Because they resemble cholesterol molecules, plant sterols are secret agents that go in and block the absorption of bad cholesterol. This makes sea buckthorn a natural approach to healthy cholesterol, while reducing the burden on the liver during hormonal transitions. 

During perimenopause and menopause, LDL cholesterol levels tend to rise, regardless of healthy dietary and lifestyle habits, making it necessary to seek additional support, like that offered from Smooth As Silk+.

By the time a woman reaches perimenopause, her heart has carried her through a lifetime of hormonal changes, the emotional toll of a career, raising a family, or being the friend that everyone always turns to. Women are often the anchor that holds everything together, and there’s a weight to that. 

Now is a time to focus on you, your heart health, and your future. A healthy heart protocol for women isn’t about strict rules and rigid routines. As a woman, you’re far too busy to worry about following an arbitrary schedule or list of to-dos. What you need is a gentle, sustainable way to support cardiovascular health, while nourishing your entire body. Now is the time for nourishment, awareness, and daily self-care practices that honor your body’s changing needs. 

There is a strong connection between cardiovascular risk and inflammation. This becomes a more serious issue once estrogen begins to decline. Nourish your body with an anti-inflammatory diet to reduce oxidative stress and support cardiovascular function. 

This includes enjoying:

• Loads of deeply colored fruits and vegetables 
• Omega-3-rich foods 
• High fiber, whole foods
• Olive oil, nuts, and seeds
• Anti-inflammatory herbs and spices like turmeric and ginger 
• Taking a daily supplement like Smooth As Silk+ that includes antioxidants, omega-7 fatty acids, vitamin D, and DHA 

Sea buckthorn offers a spectrum of omega fatty acids, including omega-3, omega-6, omega-7, and omega-9. Of these, omega-7 is the hardest to come by naturally, but it’s also powerful for reducing inflammation and supporting vascular elasticity. A high-quality sea buckthorn supplement easily fills the need for daily omega-7. 

You don’t have to train for a marathon and become a power lifter, but movement is crucial for women over 45. It’s one of the most powerful tools you have for supporting heart health. Exercise improves circulation, lowers inflammation, and helps to keep the heart healthy. 

Gentle forms of exercise, like walking, low-impact cardio, yoga, stretching, and mobility exercises, are excellent for heart health. 

Many women hear that they need to take steps to reduce stress and to manage it effectively. There’s no question that this is solid advice, but let’s be real here – women are constantly multitasking, taking the role of caregiver and leader, while piling on the effects of endless emotional labor. 

No matter how hard you try to reduce stress, it’s still there. 

In addition to reducing stress, we should also focus on how to recover from the inevitable. After a stressful day, make sure to take time for yourself. Allow yourself the time to take a few deep breaths, meditate for a few minutes, create a space of quiet and stillness, and learn to say no without guilt. 

The body is hard at work while you’re sleeping, and one of the many things going on is cardiovascular repair. After 45, sleep can become lighter and easily disrupted, and unfortunately, this can raise blood pressure and cardiovascular risk. 

Make sleep a priority by setting a consistent bedtime, making sure your sleeping environment is dark and cool, saying goodnight to the screens a couple of hours before bedtime, and enjoying a nice, warm herbal tea along with a magnesium supplement before hitting the sheets. 

Cardiovascular wellness begins with prevention – and knowledge. Make sure to keep those annual doctor's appointments and keep track of your important numbers, like blood pressure, fasting glucose, A1C, lipid profile, and waist circumference. 

Women deserve health information and advocacy that reflects them, their changing needs, and unique cardiovascular risks. Women deserve solutions that honor their hormonal, emotional, and cardiovascular wellness in midlife. 

While sea buckthorn with omega-7 isn’t a magic bullet, it is one of the most powerful defenders of heart health that you can have on your side. Smooth As Silk+ is formulated with the highest quality, purest sea buckthorn sourced from high in the Himalayan Mountains. There is no other sea buckthorn supplement that performs so well for feminine wellness and health. 

Now is the time to begin protecting your heart health. Life is changing, and so are your hormones, but you can adapt and provide your body with everything it needs now and into the future.