As women enter their late 40s and early 50s, the transition through menopause brings more than just the end of menstrual cycles. It triggers a cascade of physiological changes that significantly impact cardiovascular health.

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From increased belly fat and hormonal fluctuations to higher risks of inflammation, metabolic syndrome, and vascular stiffening, this phase of life poses a critical turning point for heart health.

A new study from the University of Pittsburgh, cited by the New York Post, sheds light on the most impactful habits that can help reduce cardiovascular risk. Analyzing data from nearly 3,000 women, researchers found that four specific behaviors — sleep, blood pressure, blood glucose, and smoking — had the greatest long-term impact on heart disease outcomes.

4 habits every woman should track to protect her heart

1. Sleep quality: a nightly reset for your heart

Poor sleep isn’t just tiring, it can be dangerous for your heart. According to the New York Post, the study emphasized that sleep disruptions during menopause are common and can worsen cardiovascular markers. Hormonal shifts affect circadian rhythms, leading to insomnia and fragmented rest. This, in turn, increases cortisol levels and insulin resistance, both of which contribute to heart disease. The American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) includes sleep as a vital metric for this reason.

Researchers found that better sleep directly correlated with healthier blood pressure and glucose levels, two other key metrics for heart protection.

“Sleep can suffer with the symptoms of menopause,” said study co-author Samar R. El Khoudary, as quoted in Medical News Today. “This has implications for heart health we can’t ignore.”

2. Blood pressure: the silent strain on your arteries

As estrogen declines during menopause, women become more vulnerable to elevated blood pressure.

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The New York Post reported that the study found significant arterial thickening and stiffness in women entering their 50s, a change often undetected until damage is already underway. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is known as the “silent killer” because it typically shows no symptoms until it’s too late. Yet, it’s one of the most modifiable risk factors.

Lifestyle changes like reducing salt, managing stress, and exercising regularly can help control it.

“There’s a change in vascular health, with increasing thickness and stiffness in the carotid artery,” El Khoudary noted. The good news? You don’t need to overhaul your life overnight. Even small shifts—like swapping salty snacks for fruit or taking evening walks—can gently nudge blood pressure in the right direction.

3. Blood glucose: the hidden predictor of heart risk

Even without a diabetes diagnosis, elevated blood sugar levels in middle age are a serious warning sign.

According to the study referenced by the New York Post, blood glucose control was among the strongest indicators of future cardiovascular trouble in menopausal women. Insulin resistance tends to rise during this period due to hormonal and metabolic shifts, increasing the likelihood of plaque buildup in the arteries.

Experts advise limiting processed sugar, maintaining a balanced diet rich in fiber and healthy fats, and staying active to manage blood glucose levels effectively.

Regular screening is also vital, as many cases of prediabetes go unnoticed until complications arise.

4. Smoking: the most avoidable threat to the heart

Despite decades of public health warnings, tobacco use remains one of the most damaging and preventable contributors to heart disease. The New York Post noted that smoking was one of the four top predictors of heart problems later in life, especially in postmenopausal women. Nicotine and carbon monoxide not only increase heart rate and blood pressure but also damage the lining of blood vessels, accelerating atherosclerosis.

The benefits of quitting are immediate and profound. Just one year after quitting, the risk of coronary heart disease drops by 50 percent. Combined with improvements in sleep, blood sugar, and blood pressure, stopping smoking creates a compounding protective effect for the cardiovascular system.

A call to action: know your numbers, take control

“Nearly 45 percent of women over 20 are living with some form of cardiovascular disease,” cardiologist Dr. Stacey Rosen told Fox News Digital, underscoring the need for early and proactive care.

Yet, the good news is that most heart disease is preventable through informed lifestyle choices.

Doctors recommend regular monitoring of cholesterol, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and blood sugar, all modifiable factors. The New York Post emphasizes the value of following the LE8 framework, which includes maintaining a healthy diet, exercising 150 minutes per week, and avoiding tobacco use.

Your midlife years are not just about managing symptoms. They are a crucial window to strengthen your heart for the decades ahead.

At 62, Phyllis Jones felt trapped in darkness. She was traumatized by her mother’s recent death, ongoing pandemic stress and an increasingly toxic work environment. A sudden panic attack led to a medical leave.

Her depression worsened until the day her 33-year-old son sadly told her, “Mom, I didn’t think I would have to be your caregiver at this stage in your life.”

“For me, that was the wake-up call,” Jones, now 66, told CNN. “That’s when I found the POINTER study and my life changed. What I accomplished during the study was phenomenal — I’m a new person.”

Phyllis Jones improved her brain and outlook on life by making significant lifestyle changes. Patty Kelly

The Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk, or US POINTER study, is the largest randomized clinical trial in the United States designed to examine whether lifestyle interventions can protect cognitive function in older adults.

“These are cognitively healthy people between the ages of 60 and 79 who, to be in the study, had to be completely sedentary and at risk for dementia due to health issues such as prediabetes and borderline high blood pressure,” said principal investigator Laura Baker, a professor of gerontology, geriatrics and internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Approximately one-half of the 2,111 study participants attended 38 structured team meetings over two years in local neighborhoods near Chicago, Houston, Winston-Salem, Sacramento, California, and Providence, Rhode Island. During each session, a trained facilitator provided guidance on how to exercise and eat for the brain, and explained the importance of socialization, the use of brain-training games, and the basics of brain health. The team leader also held the group accountable for logging blood pressure and other vitals. Physical and cognitive exams by a physician occurred every six months.

At six team meetings, the other half of the study’s participants learned about brain health and were encouraged to select lifestyle changes that best suited their schedules. This group was self-guided, with no goal-directed coaching. These participants also received physical and cognitive exams every six months.

The two-year results of the $50 million study, funded by the Alzheimer’s Association, were simultaneously presented Monday at the 2025 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto and published in the journal JAMA.

“We found people in the structured program appeared to delay normal cognitive aging by one to nearly two years over and above the self-guided group — people who did not receive the same degree of support,” Baker said. “However, the self-guided group improved their cognitive scores over time as well.”

Olive oil was a key part of the nutritional changes in the POINTER study. MarianVejcik/iStockphoto/Getty Images

Exercise, diet and socializing are key

Exercise was the first challenge. Like the other groups across the country, Jones and her Aurora, Illinois, team received YMCA memberships and lessons on how to use the gym equipment. Jones was told to use aerobic exercise to raise her heart rate for 30 minutes a day while adding strength training and stretching several times a week.

At first, it wasn’t easy.

The study participants wore fitness trackers that monitored their activity, Jones said. “After that first 10 minutes, I was sweating and exhausted,” she said. “But we went slow, adding 10 minutes at a time, and we kept each other honest. Now I just love to work out.”

Four weeks later, teams were given a new challenge — beginning the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, or MIND diet. The diet combines the best of the Mediterranean diet with the salt restrictions of the DASH diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

“They gave us a refrigerator chart with foods to limit and foods to enjoy,” Jones said. “We had to eat berries and vegetables most days, including green leafy veggies, which was a separate item. We had to have 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil once every day.”

Foods to limit included fried food, processed meat, dairy, cheese and butter. Restrictions were also in place for sugary sweets. “But we could have dessert four times a week,” Jones added. “That’s awesome because you’re not completely depriving yourself.”

Another pillar of the program was requiring study participants to familiarize themselves with their vital signs, Wake Forest’s Baker said. “If at any point we asked them, ‘What’s your average blood pressure?’ they should be able to tell us,” she said. “We encouraged people to monitor their blood sugar as well.”

Later came brain training, via memberships to a popular, Web-based cognitive training app. While some scientists say the benefits of such online brain programs have yet to be proven, Jones said she enjoyed the mental stimulation.

Becoming better at socializing was another key part of the program. The researchers tasked teams with assignments, such as speaking to strangers or going out with friends.

Phyllis Jones and her bestie, Patty Kelly. Phyllis Jones

“I found my best friend, Patty Kelly, on my team,” Jones said. “At 81, she’s older than me, but we do all sorts of things together — in fact, she’s coming with me to Toronto when I speak at the Alzheimer’s conference.

“Isolation is horrible for your brain,” she added. “But once you get to a point where you are moving and eating healthy, your energy level changes, and I think you automatically become more social.”

As the study progressed, the researchers reduced check-ins to twice a month, then once a month, Baker said.

“We were trying to get people to say, ‘I am now a healthy person,’ because if you believe that, you start making decisions which agree with the new perception of yourself,” she said.

“So in the beginning, we were holding their hands, but by the end, they were flying on their own,” Baker added. “And that was the whole idea — get them to fly on their own.”

‘Brain health is a long game’

Because researchers tracked each team closely, the study has a wealth of data that has yet to be mined.

“On any given day, I could go into our web-based data system and see how much exercise someone’s doing, whether they’ve logged into brain training that day, what’s their latest MIND diet score, and whether they’d attended the last team meeting,” Baker said.

“We also have sleep data, blood biomarkers, brain scans and other variables, which will provide more clarity on which parts of the intervention were most successful.”

Digging deeper into the data is important, Baker says, because the study has limitations, such as the potential for a well-known phenomenon called the practice effect.

“Even though we use different stimuli within tests, the act of taking a test over and over makes you more familiar with the situation — you know where the clinic is, where to park, you’re more comfortable with your examiner,” she said.

“You’re not really smarter, you’re just more relaxed and comfortable, so therefore you do better on the test,” Baker said. “So while we’re thrilled both groups in US POINTER appear to have improved their global cognition (thinking, learning and problem-solving), we have to be cautious in our interpretations.”

It’s important to note the POINTER study was not designed to provide the more immersive lifestyle interventions needed for people with early stages of Alzheimer’s, said Dr. Dean Ornish, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Ornish published a June 2024 clinical trial that found a strict vegan diet, daily exercise, structured stress reduction and frequent socialization could often stop the decline or even improve cognition in those already experiencing from early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, not just for those at risk for it.

“The US POINTER randomized clinical trial is a landmark study showing that moderate lifestyle changes in diet, exercise, socialization and more can improve cognition in those at risk for dementia,” said Ornish, creator of the Ornish diet and lifestyle medicine program and coauthor of “Undo It!: How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases.”

“It complements our randomized clinical trial findings which found that more intensive multiple lifestyle changes often improve cognition in those already diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease,” Ornish said. “But the US POINTER study showed that more moderate lifestyle changes may be sufficient to help prevent it.”

In reality, two years isn’t sufficient to track brain changes over time, said study coauthor Maria Carillo, chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association.

“We really want to make recommendations that are evidence based,” Carillo told CNN. “That’s why we have invested another $40 million in a four-year follow-up, and I believe over 80% of the original participants have joined.

“Brain health is a long game,” she added. “It’s hard to track, but over time, change can be meaningful.”

Share on Pinterest Drinking coffee black without cream or sugar could help reduce your risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Getty Images/Kseniya Ovchinnikova

Researchers say daily coffee consumption can lower a person’s overall mortality risk as well as their risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

However, the benefits decline for those who add significant amounts of sugar and saturated fats, such as cream, to their coffee.

If you don’t enjoy the taste of coffee, experts say there are healthy alternatives that offer similar health benefits.

Coffee might be good for your heart as well as your overall health, but you might want to order it black.

That’s the conclusion of a new observational study conducted by researchers from Tufts University and recently published in The Journal of Nutrition.

In their findings, the researchers reported that people who drink one to three cups of caffeinated black coffee per day with little or no sugar or saturated fats added had a 14% lower overall mortality risk and a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease compared to people who drink no coffee.

They noted that drinking more than three cups a day was not associated with an additional risk reduction. The risk reduction was also not evident for people who add significant amounts of sugar or fats, such as cream, to their coffee.

In addition, the researchers said they did not notice a lower cancer mortality risk among regular coffee drinkers.

Zhaoping Li, MD, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said this study adds to prior research on coffee’s health benefits. Li wasn’t involved in the study.

“What the study found is consistent with what we know,” she told Healthline.

Maya Vadiveloo, PhD, RD, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of Rhode Island and chair of the American Heart Association (AHA) Nutrition Committee, agreed.

“It’s an interesting analysis in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults that is largely consistent with existing studies finding the benefits of moderate coffee intake,” Vadiveloo, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Healthline.

Kristin Kirkpatrick, RD, the president of KAK Consulting and a dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Wellness & Preventive Medicine in Ohio, echoed these remarks. Kirkpatrick likewise wasn’t involved in the study.

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways

Reviewed by Dietitian Annie Nguyen, M.A., RD

Getty Images. EatingWell design.

It’s no secret that exercise has many benefits. For example, we previously reported on a study that found that regular physical activity reduced the risk of more than 200 diseases—even when it was squeezed into a couple of days as opposed to spreading it throughout the week. Included among those 200 diseases was dementia.

Dementia is an umbrella term for a condition that affects someone’s ability to think, remember and make decisions in everyday life. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, accounting for 60% to 80% of all dementia cases. Unfortunately, dementia is on the rise in America—approximately 6.7 million U.S. adults have Alzheimer’s disease and that number is expected to double by the year 2060.

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While dementia is incurable, it may be preventable (or at the very least, it can be slowed down and delayed). Exercise is one of the health habits that can help—and a new study suggests that just a few minutes each week can help more than you may realize. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health set out to try to clear up some of the unknowns. They published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Here’s what they found and how you can apply their findings to your life.

Related: The #1 Habit to Start Now to Reduce Your Dementia Risk

How Was This Study Conducted?

Researchers pulled data from the UK Biobank, a large, long-running study in the United Kingdom that collects data from over 500,000 people. The information includes demographics—including age, sex, socioeconomic status and education level—and health information—like blood pressure, cholesterol levels, BMI and medical history.

Participants were voluntarily recruited into the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2010. The purpose of the Biobank is to help advance modern medicine and foster a deeper understanding of disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

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Between February 2013 and December 2015, a subsample of 106,053 participants accepted the invitation to wear an accelerometer on their wrist for seven days. An accelerometer is similar to a smartwatch and tracks all activity, including how vigorous it is and for how long. The information gathered from the accelerometers was recorded in the Biobank.

Related: These Foods May Help Reduce Your Risk of Cognitive Decline, New Study Suggests

For this current study, researchers chose 89,667 of the 106,053 accelerometer participants who met their criteria. At the time they wore the accelerometer, the average age of the participants was 63; 56% were women and 59% of the total participants reported no chronic disease or frailty. These participants were followed for just over four years on average. During that time, 735 of them were diagnosed with dementia.

In addition to the accelerometer data, they also collected demographic and medical information for the almost 90,000 participants. This included diagnoses of both dementia and frailty.

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Frailty is based on five factors: low hand-grip strength, slow walking speed, unintentional weight loss, self-reported exhaustion and low self-reported physical activity. Participants were then labeled as being robust (0 factors for frailty), prefrail (1 to 2 factors for frailty) or frail (3 or more factors). The reason frailty was observed is because it’s associated with a higher risk of dementia. Plus, people experiencing frailty tend to be less active.

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the minimum amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) to reduce the risk of dementia. A secondary goal of this study was to assess whether the association between MVPA and dementia differed based on frailty status.

Related: Walking as Little as One Hour Can Help You Live Longer, According to Science

What Did This Study Find?

Several statistical analyses were run, including adjusting for certain confounding factors (like the demographics). Researchers found that compared to those with no MVPA:

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Engaging in one to 35 minutes of MVPA per week was associated with a 41% reduced risk of dementia

Engaging in 36 to 70 minutes of MVPA per week was associated with a 60% lower risk of dementia

Engaging in 71 to 140 minutes of MVPA per week was associated with a 63% reduced risk of dementia

Engaging in more than 140 minutes of MVPA per week was associated with a 69% decreased risk of dementia

When considering frailty status, researchers found no difference between those labeled robust and those labeled frail.

“This suggests that even frail or nearly frail older adults might be able to reduce their dementia risk through low-dose exercise,” says Amal Wanigatunga, Ph.D, M.P.H., one of the lead study authors and an ​​assistant professor in the John Hopkins Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology, in a press release.

Related: You Could Lower Dementia Risk by 28% by Making This Protein Swap, New Study Suggests

How Does This Apply to Real Life?

These study authors note that the official physical activity guidelines endorsed by the Department of Health and Human Services—at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week—are unattainable for some people, including those who are frail.

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However, this study suggests that anything more than one minute of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity has some benefits regarding dementia prevention. In other words, every little bit counts.

This concept may be difficult if you struggle with an all-or-nothing mindset. If you’re the kind of person who might give up on working out for the day if you don’t have time to do your full workout routine, try to let go of that habit. Just because you can’t get in a full hour or 30 minutes at the gym doesn’t mean it’s not worth exercising in the little time you do have. Having such a fixed mindset may eventually show up as unbelief in your ability to prevent disease or to exercise properly.

Does that sound familiar?

When implementing any new habit, it’s important to begin with where you’re at. Sounds like common sense, but so many of us try to start at the end goal—which usually ends up in quickly burning out.

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Using physical activity as an example, if you’re currently averaging way under the recommended 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week but you decide to start there—say, by walking 20 to 25 minutes every day—you might last a few days and most likely will quickly resort to old habits. It’s not your fault. It’s just how our brains work.

Related: 6 Exercises Women over 50 Should Do Every Week, According to a Personal Trainer

But if your goal is to hit that 150 minutes a week and you start with something smaller—like a 15-minute walk three times a week—and slowly increase from there, you’re more likely to meet your goal over time.

The good news is that this isn’t the only study to suggest that there are benefits to moving in smaller amounts than the guidelines recommend. Another study we reported on suggests that climbing 60 to 100 steps a day—about four to eight flights of household stairs—can significantly reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. This can be done by intentionally being less efficient. For example, instead of carrying the entire laundry basket upstairs, take just a few items at a time to get more stairs in.

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How about the study that suggests exercising just once a week can reduce your diabetes risk? These examples show that little changes to your routine can really make a difference in the long run.

So, yes, many studies show that for disease prevention, you will enjoy some protection with almost any amount of physical activity—because it’s about the cumulative effect over time. It’s important to note, however, that while it doesn’t take much physical activity to reduce disease risk, if you want to improve your fitness level you need to engage in a higher amount of physical activity.

Related: Simple 7-Day Cognitive Health Meal Plan, Created by a Dietitian

The Bottom Line

This study suggests that any amount of physical activity may help reduce the risk of dementia, regardless of the level of frailty. You can get a head start on preventing dementia by making physical activity a habit now, since changes in the brain leading to Alzheimer’s begin decades before symptoms show up. Besides physical activity, we also know that an anti-inflammatory diet that includes plenty of fiber, healthy fats and antioxidants also contributes to reduced dementia risk, as does getting plenty of quality sleep, managing your stressors and spending time with family and friends.

Related: The #1 Snack for Better Brain Health, Recommended by Experts

Read the original article on EATINGWELL

Most people know that exercising, eating healthy and keeping your mind active can lower your risk of dementia.

But with the expected number of Americans living with dementia projected to increase to 13.8 million by 2060, the hunt is on for anything that could help prevent this devastating disease.

Now, a new study out of Stanford Medicine has presented some of the strongest evidence yet that a vaccine to help prevent dementia already exists — except it’s for a totally different condition.

A new study out of Stanford suggests a common vaccine may significantly reduce the risk of dementia. littlewolf1989 – stock.adobe.com

Researchers analyzed the health records of over 280,000 older adults in Wales and found that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia over the next seven years compared to those who did not.

“It was a really striking finding,” Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford, said. “This huge protective signal was there, any which way you looked at the data.”

Shingles is a painful rash condition that is caused by the reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus — which remains dormant in nerve cells after someone has chickenpox.

While the exact link between the shingles vaccine and dementia is unknown, some believe preventing the reactivation of the neurodegenerative condition may reduce neuroinflammation, a factor implicated in the development of dementia.

The study is different in a major way.

Previous research has shown a link between the shingles vaccine and dementia — for example, a 2024 study by the University of Oxford found that the newer recombinant shingles vaccine, Shingrix, was associated with a 17% reduction in dementia risk compared to its predecessor, Zostavax.

However, research has not been able to account for the impact that lifestyle factors might have on the results.

“All these associational studies suffer from the basic problem that people who get vaccinated have different health behaviors than those who don’t,” Geldsetzer said.

“In general, they’re seen as not being solid enough evidence to make any recommendations on,” he noted.

While the exact cause of the association between the shingles vaccine and dementia is unknown, some believe preventing the painful condition might reduce neuroinflammation — a factor implicated in the development of dementia. LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS – stock.adobe.com

Notably, the new study capitalized on a unique public health policy in Wales, in which people who had turned 80 just after Sept. 1, 2013, were eligible for the shingles vaccine — while those who turned 80 just before were not.

This natural division allowed researchers to compare dementia rates between two very similar groups.

“We know that if you take a thousand people at random born in one week and a thousand people at random born a week later, there shouldn’t be anything different about them on average,” Geldsetzer said. “They are similar to each other apart from this tiny difference in age.”

“What makes the study so powerful is that it’s essentially like a randomized trial with a control group — those a little bit too old to be eligible for the vaccine — and an intervention group — those just young enough to be eligible,” he added.

Even when accounting for other factors — such as education levels and vaccination history — the team found the two groups to be virtually indistinguishable apart from the drop in dementia cases in the shingles vaccine cohort.

“Because of the unique way in which the vaccine was rolled out, bias in the analysis is much less likely than would usually be the case,” Geldsetzer said. “The signal in our data was so strong, so clear and so persistent.”

As with the Oxford study, this new study found that the vaccine’s protective benefits were higher among women than men — possibly because women are more prone to shingles.

The Stanford team has replicated the study in several other countries over the last two years with similar results.

They are now hoping to launch a large, randomized controlled trial to strengthen the evidence.

“It would be a very simple, pragmatic trial because we have a one-off intervention that we know is safe,” Geldsetzer said.

Can other jabs fight dementia?

Interestingly enough, this isn’t the only vaccine that has been shown to lower dementia risk. UTHealth Houston found in 2023 that vaccination against tetanus and diphtheria were linked to a reduced risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

The year before, the same research team published another study that found that getting at least one flu vaccine made people 40% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those who had never gotten a flu jab.

“We and others hypothesize that the immune system is responsible for causing brain cell dysfunction in Alzheimer’s,” Dr. Paul E. Schulz, a neurologist and senior author of the paper, said.

“The findings suggest to us that vaccination is having a more general effect on the immune system that is reducing the risk for developing Alzheimer’s.”