There's altered sleep patterns, weight gain, diabetes, emotional problems.

It's all interconnected to cardiovascular health.

And if you look at the effect of estrogen in the heart, you see that it affects through

the autonomic nervous system, the rhythm.

But as well, there's a problem that sometimes is referred to as broken heart

syndrome, which is where you have this massive stress stimulus to the heart and can kill

women.

Dr. Felice Gersh is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and integrative medicine.

She's been studying the connections between estrogen and cardiovascular disease.

This is the Lizzie Well-Being Show, the podcast helping us all have a better second half.

I'm Liz Earle and I'm on a bit of a mission

to find ways for all of us to thrive in our later lives by investing in our health and our

well-being today. Now you may be aware that we are going to be focusing on all things

disease prevention this month on the podcast and And if you're listening to this on

Valentine's Day, of course it's very appropriate, isn't it, for today's topic? Because heart

disease is the number one killer of women worldwide. Does that surprise you? It might do, because somehow

it's still seen as a male problem. And indeed, female

heart health patients are routinely tested and treated against male standards, despite our

bodies functioning incredibly differently. The impact is huge. We're talking unclear diagnoses

and often the wrong treatment. So the female heart

functions differently to the male heart. It's affected by things like menstrual cycles and menopause,

but there are also empowering lifestyle changes we can make to prevent heart disease once we

...