Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Susie Garden
and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women
(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Ageless and Awesomepodcast.
This week, I want to talk aboutthe effect of perimenopause, or
(00:47):
menopause, on our hearts.
This is not something that'stalked about a lot, and when I
was having a look at informationon this, I reckon it's because
there's really just not a lot ofresearch on it, because I
looked at several sources that Iusually find are pretty
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reliable and I found a lot ofreally conflicting information.
So I found that reallyinteresting, but the specific
thing I wanted to talk about washeart palpitations.
Was heart palpitations andthat's the main thing I was
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finding?
It is just, yeah, reallyopposing viewpoints on what
causes this in women inperimenopause and menopause, and
I suspect it's because there'sno research.
So the main kind of very vaguelanguage that was used was.
You know, hormone fluctuationsmay cause this, which to me
seems pretty, pretty poor formactually, because heart
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palpitations I don't know ifyou've ever had one, but I've
had them on and off throughoutmy life and my mom has really
severe atrial fibrillation andone of the symptoms of that is
that palpitation sensation.
Now I've just realized I shouldprobably define what that is.
So palpitations, if you're notquite sure, refers to a
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sensation that we get in thebody that happens when the heart
is beating quite rapidly.
And if you've ever had thishappen, it can be a little bit
scary because you know you onlyhave one heart and you kind of
really need it and if it's notworking properly it's a problem.
And generally heartpalpitations are only going to
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last for a very short period oftime, and that might be from a
matter of seconds to maybe justa few minutes.
Now, if it's happening forlonger than that, it probably
should be investigated.
The problem is often, whenthey're doing the investigations
, you actually need toexperience the palpitations in
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order for them to be picked upon any of the monitoring
equipment and, generallyspeaking, you know.
You know what it's like.
If you're going to getsomething tested.
Of course, the thing that youwant to have happen is not going
to happen, but regardless, youreally should get it tested if
you experience this and youdon't know why.
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There can be a number ofdifferent causes of heart
palpitations, so it's not justperimenopause or menopause,
which is why I think there is alack, I guess, of consensus on
what causes this and there's alack of research, again, because
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it's just so, it's a we'rewomen, so we, they don't like
doing it, but, um, yeah, it'sjust, it's one of these things
where people it's not lifethreatening, you know, for most
people so they generally don'tworry about necessarily
researching it because it's justa natural part of our life
cycle and it's kind of a knownthing.
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So these irregular it can be anirregular heartbeat or it can
be a very like, a very, yeah, areal sensation in your body of,
oh, my heart's beating really,really fast.
Now there's a few things thathappen and I think one of the
things that they think is partlydue to estrogen is the fact
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that many women, when they'rehaving hot flushes, will get a
sense of palpitations at thebeginning of that hot flush.
So there's a thought thatperhaps there is this surge in
estrogen that may cause it.
Then other things I've readsaid it's because of the decline
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in estrogen that can affect thepathways in the heart that the
electrical impulses travelthrough.
I've read other things thatsaid that taking progesterone
and that's like a hormonetherapy progesterone can help
with heart palpitations.
(05:09):
But again, there doesn't seemto be a lot of research on it.
So I guess I thought I'd justtalk a little bit about what
potentially you can do to helpavoid them and some of the other
causes of heart palpitationsthat might be present as well,
because one of the big thingswith heart palpitations is
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anxiety.
Anxiety can absolutely bring onheart palpitations or racing
heart and high degrees of stressor racing heart and high
degrees of stress.
And obviously you know life formost of us is pretty stressful,
particularly when you hit your40s and 50s.
There's a lot going on.
So if you don't have like amindfulness practice or some
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sort of stress management, whichcan be anything really that
brings you joy, then it'sprobably a good idea to bring
that in to help prevent theheart palpitations from
happening.
With many of our stressmanagement techniques it's Doing
it when you're in thatstressful event sometimes just
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isn't practical.
So doing it, having a dailypractice, really trains your
body to respond in a way that'sgoing to help you rather than
make you feel worse.
So even if you're just doing apractice for five or 10 minutes,
and that practice may simply beobserving your breath entering
and leaving your body, anythinglike that will help.
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Or it could be doing somethingfun that you really enjoy doing.
So, yeah, stress management iskey.
Potentially, coffee Coffee isknown to make the heart race, so
if you have a lot of coffee, itmight be worth dialing that
back.
Also, alcohol alcohol.
Yeah, I hate it.
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When I talk about alcohol,often I'll get a lot of feedback
that we don't want to stop ourdrinking.
But for many women, alcohol canset off heart palpitations and
it's not nice.
That is one thing for me.
If I have a few drinks, I willalmost certainly get heart
palpitations, and it's usually afew hours later when I'm in bed
and it'll keep me awake andit's horrible.
So you know, I'm very, verycareful with my alcohol intake
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these days, because one of theside effects for me is racing
heart and it doesn't feel niceand even though I know what it
is, it still makes there's asense of fear that comes when
you have that heart palpitationgoing on.
Yeah, also, things like smokingor nicotine intake, in whatever
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form it is, can cause heartpalpitations.
Some stimulant drugs like someof the recreational drugs, they
can increase the heart rate.
Some decongestant medications,such as pseudoephedrine
phenylephrine they're reallycommon, the pseudoephedrine in
Australia, youphrine thatthey're really common, the
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pseudoephedrine in Australia.
You can't really get easilyanymore, but the phenylephrine
is the replacement in many ofthe decongestant tablets, so
that can cause heartpalpitations.
Diet pills can cause heartpalpitations.
Fever well, I mean, you'regoing to know if you have a
fever.
But also it can be somethinglike an abnormal heart rhythm
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caused by heart disease or aheart valve issue, or if your
potassium isn't at the rightlevels or if you have an
overactive thyroid.
Some medications like ones thattreat asthma and high blood
pressure.
So there's a few things thatare going on.
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It complicates things becauseoften we're at that age in your
40s and 50s where maybe you havehigh blood pressure and you
don't know, or you popped on anantihypertensive for your blood
pressure and you don't realizethat's going to give you heart
palpitations.
So there's a lot of things thatcan cause it.
I guess I just wanted tohighlight that it can be
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something that crops up inperimenopause and menopause due
to the hormonal fluctuations.
But I guess my take-home messageis that if you experience this
and it's something that'slasting more than just a few
seconds or a minute, youprobably should have a chat to
your GP about it.
They may just say don't worryabout it.
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They may say let's see if ithappens again.
But particularly if you do havea history, like I do a family
history of heart arrhythmiashistory of heart arrhythmias
it's really important to get itchecked out so that you can rule
out and intervene if needed anysort of arrhythmia condition
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that's going on in the heart.
So I hope that's helpful.
If you have experienced this,I'd love to know.
Just give me a little messageon at SusieGardenWellness on
Instagram or you can send me aemail.
Hello at susiegardencom.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on the Ageless and Awesome
podcast.
(10:10):
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(10:30):
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